


There's An Imposter Among Us (and I Don't Just Mean The Platypus)

by kittyhazelnut



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Gen, Heinz and Perry are lowkey dating but this was more about the kids than them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:14:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28784016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittyhazelnut/pseuds/kittyhazelnut
Summary: Is there a point in saying 2020 sucks, or is that just a given? Fortunately, Among Us came in and saved the day!
Relationships: Baljeet Tjinder & Buford van Stomm, Candace Flynn & Stacy Hirano, Candace Flynn/Jeremy Johnson, Ferb Fletcher & Candace Flynn & Phineas Flynn, Ferb Fletcher & Phineas Flynn, Ferb Fletcher & Phineas Flynn & Perry the Platypus, Heinz Doofenshmirtz & Perry the Platypus, Phineas Flynn/Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, Vanessa Doofenshmirtz & Candace Flynn
Comments: 24
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NecroticCoffee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NecroticCoffee/gifts).



> This was for a secret santa thing that happened a few weeks late sooo it's definitely not 2020 anymore and Among Us is far less cool than it was at the time. There are a lot of inside jokes that no one's even going to remember, but Coffee mentioned wanting something with the kids, and this idea was born!

Is there a point in saying 2020 sucks, or is that just a given?

Phineas and Ferb tried to make the best of it. That’s what they do; they see a problem and they find the most fun solution. Unfortunately, they don’t have the budget to cure the coronavirus -- though Ferb is convinced he could if their investors would just front them a couple hundred million dollars for it -- and with the lockdown, they haven’t been able to get within six feet of their friends in months. 

And then Innersloth saved the day.

At this point, it seems like there’s not a single person who hasn’t played Among Us, and that the general consensus is that it is the only good thing to come out of 2020. Of course, being a platypus, Perry is exempt from this “not a single person” thing, but while he hasn’t _played_ the game before, he’s certainly heard his fair share about it. He doesn’t really have any opinion on it, but he does like to see the kids get excited over it so he tends to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Video games are the last thing on his mind right now as he’s crying over soap operas on his ex-nemesis’s couch. The nice thing about being a platypus who “doesn’t do much” is that despite Danville’s lockdown measures, he can still wander off to Doofenshmirtz Inc and spend time with his friend -- if he can call him that; they’ve never discussed it, but Perry has a sneaking suspicion that they’re more than friends -- which is a luxury most people don’t have these days.

Heinz may be _good_ now, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to listen to his brother when he says to limit contact with people outside the household. That leads to Vanessa coming over more often than most adults visit their parents, and it’s always nice to see her. Today is no exception.

She snorts when she sees them. “Having fun over there?”

“Carlos finally told Ciara that he loves her, but --” Heinz wipes a tear from his eye. “But Ciara had _just_ given up waiting for him and accepted rich Alejandro’s engagement so she could pay for her father’s cancer treatment.”

“Oh, really, now.” Vanessa crosses her arms, an amused smile on her face. Perry senses this is going to go on longer than he’d like, so he pauses the show before they miss too much of Ciara’s confession. “And do we like Alejandro?”

“Of course not!” Heinz says immediately, as if she’d just asked if he liked rice pudding. “He only loves her because she’s beautiful! Carlos loves her because of _who she is_!”

Vanessa shakes her head, a pleasant type of exasperation in her expression. “Do you want me to come back later, when Ciara and Carlos decide to, I don’t know, fake their deaths and run away together or whatever?”

Heinz gasps. “Is that what happens?”

“God, I sure as hell hope not,” Vanessa says. “I know these aren’t the highest quality shows you guys watch, but I’d hope they wouldn’t blatantly rip off _Romeo and Juliet_ like that.”

They absolutely would and Perry’s fully aware of that, but just because he knows these soap operas kind of suck doesn’t mean he has to stop enjoying them. One of them _did_ put his suspension of disbelief over the edge when it sent a car to heaven, but otherwise, he’s enjoyed every dumb plot point in their dumb soap operas.

“I can’t stay for more than a few hours, by the way,” Vanessa says. “I’m playing Among Us with some friends later.”

Perry had heard the game was popular, but he didn’t think 27-year-old women would be playing the same things as 19-year-old boys. It must be more popular than he’d thought. If only he’d paid more attention when the kids played it; maybe he’d know enough about it to talk about it with her -- “talk” being a relative term, of course.

“Who’s this ‘us’ you’re playing among?” Heinz asks. “Just because we’re ignoring Roger’s lockdown so _we_ can spend time together doesn’t mean you can go off and go play around at parties. We’re trying to spite your uncle, _not_ get sick.”

“It’s a video game,” she says. “Ferb asked if I wanted to play, ‘cause it’s not very fun with just six people.”

“Of course he did,” Heinz says, a small smile on his lips. “Well, if you want to play video games with a bunch of college kids, I’m glad it’s _those_ college kids. There are worse crowds.”

“Did I hear Vanessa?”

Norm steps out of his closet, where he’d been residing not because Heinz doesn’t like him -- they’ve (mostly) mended their relationship over the years -- but because he’s not caught up on the show yet and didn’t want to see any spoilers.

“Hey, Norm.” Vanessa gives him a half-wave.

“Hi, sis!” Norm says cheerfully. 

“Oh, hey!” Vanessa lights up. “Have you ever played the game Among Us?”

“No, I have not,” Norm says. “What is it?”

Vanessa’s summary (“One or two people go around and kill everyone else and try not to get caught”) makes more sense than literally any conversation Perry has overheard in the weeks that Phineas and Ferb have been obsessing over this game. In fact, it actually puts a lot of off-hand remarks in context. 

“That sounds fun!” Norm says. “Why do you ask?”

“We can fit three more people,” Vanessa tells him, “and the guys were hoping we could fill the game. Do you want to play tonight?”

“Sure!” Norm says. “Murder is always fun!”

Vanessa laughs. “You are _so_ lucky OWCA finally took those cameras down or there’d be an agent here within minutes.”

Perry tips his fedora as a reminder that there already _is_ an agent here, thank you very much. OWCA may be fairly slow lately thanks to Covid messing up a lot of evil scientists’ plans, but he can still be an agent of an organization that hasn’t done much in months. 

“Okay, there’d be an _on-duty_ agent,” Vanessa specifies. “At least, I’m assuming you’re not on duty if you’re watching cheesy soap operas with my dad.”

Perry shakes his head. 

“Are you working later tonight?” she asks.

Perry raises an eyebrow, puzzled, but shakes his head again. He’s had more vacation days this month alone than he did during the entirety of 2018 and 2019 combined. 

“Wanna join the game, too?” she asks. 

Perry immediately shakes his head, a little more forcefully than necessary and a _lot_ more forcefully than the previous times, so it’s no surprise that she picks up on it.

“It’d be fun!” she says. “You don’t even have to know what you’re doing. I mean, Norm won’t, so you’ve got that going for you.”

Perry shakes his head yet again, and at this point, he’s surprised he’s not starting to get dizzy. He can’t play games with his host family. That’s… well, there’s probably no _rule_ against it, but it’s _implied_ to be not allowed. Vanessa should know that.

“You won’t have to use the voice chat,” she adds. “There’s a text chat, too. They won’t ask questions about it. I mean, call me crazy but I’m _pretty sure_ most people wouldn’t see someone typing and assume it’s their pe--” 

Perry chatters loudly, though it seems she was about to cut herself off, too. _She_ may know about Perry’s host family, but she also used to intern for OWCA; she’s allowed to know. Heinz, on the other hand, is probably best left in the dark. Fortunately, being in the dark is what he does best, and he doesn’t even question it.

“Come on, it’ll be great,” Vanessa says. “You can play at my place if you want. I’ll be on my laptop, but you can borrow my phone. No one has to know.”

Perry shakes his head.

“It would make Phineas and Ferb happy,” Vanessa says, because she _knows_ that’s his weak spot. “The game’s more fun with more people, you know.”

Perry narrows his eyes. Manipulation at its finest. She has a point, though; if the game really _is_ more fun with more players, the kids would probably enjoy his presence more on the other side of a keyboard than curled up on the living room couch. 

Vanessa grins. “Game starts at six; get there at least ten minutes early so I can get you set up.”

Perry gives a single nod. Well, this is going to be an experience, to say the least.


	2. Chapter 2

“Everybody here?” Phineas asks, skimming through the names in the voice chat. He recognizes most of them from their usual Discord conversations, but it seems a few new people joined in while he wasn’t paying attention. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that “Normbot” is Vanessa’s robot pseudo-brother, but the last one…

“Perry?” Isabella reads aloud just before Phineas could comment on it. “Are we inviting our pets? I don’t think Pinky got the memo.”

_Perry is typing..._

Phineas has to hope he realizes that was a joke. No one _actually_ suspected that their pet platypus was playing Among Us with them. Vanessa had already told Candace that she was inviting a friend from work; she hadn’t mentioned a name, but this Perry guy has to be him.

_Perry: # [ ] >_

“Nice to meet you, Perry,” Phineas says, and he means it. He has seen many good first impressions in his life, but none as good as a text platypus.

_Perry: You too, Phineas :)_

“Everyone here?” Isabella asks. 

Everyone responds with some variation of “Yes” simultaneously, with the exception of Buford and his “No.” 

_Ferb: It looks like there are nine of us. We should be all set_.

“Then let’s play!” Isabella says. 

“Who’s hosting?” Vanessa asks.

“Me!” Phineas says, already setting it up. 

He sets two imposters -- the number agreed upon in the planning stages of their game night, with the caveat that should the game go on for a while, they would probably play around with the settings. Once the code is in the chat for everyone else to join, he plays around with the rest of the settings. Confirm ejects is turned off, and anonymous votes are turned on to add some mystery.

By the time Phineas looks away from the computer within his computer, everyone else is already in the game and half of them are swapping out hats. The colors are, of course, the most important part of the game, and given that they weren’t decided on in advance -- admittedly a bit of an oversight -- it’s surprising how well it works out. Phineas is red, Ferb is lime, Candace is pink, Isabella is orange, Buford is black, Baljeet is blue, Vanessa is purple, Norm is green, and Perry is cyan. Of course, as the reader, you have absolutely no reason to know any of that because everyone is going to be referred to by name, but you can’t have Among Us without colors.

“Ready?” Phineas asks.

“Look at me!” Buford says, clearly excited. “I have a cowboy hat!”

“You think that’s cool?” Candace scoffs, and her character makes its way to the computer. It takes a few moments, but sure enough, she’s soon blessed with a hat of her own choosing. “Look, I’m wearing a mini-me!”

Everyone who hadn’t yet chosen a hat jumps at the chance, and Phineas, who’s already content with his angel halo, just watches the madness unfold. 

_Perry: Where is everyone getting their hats?_

As the proud owner of every single hat in the game -- both on mobile and PC -- Phineas is more than capable of explaining it. Vanessa beats him to it by the briefest second, and given that she’s apparently in the same room as him anyway, that works out well. 

It takes a couple minutes, but eventually, everyone has a hat. Phineas has to admit, he likes Perry’s the most -- though he does think the fedora would look better in brown instead of black.

The game begins, and everyone shuts their mics off. Phineas is given the very honorable title of crewmate, and he’s excited to start the round…

Until he realizes three of his tasks are in Electrical. He’s going to try to put them off as long as possible, but in reality, there’s no point in denying it: he’s toast.


	3. Chapter 3

The two imposters of the round are Isabella and Norm. Given that this is Norm’s first time playing, Isabella doesn’t expect much from him, but that’s okay. If there was a Fireside Girl patch for being the best imposter, she would have it. She doesn’t need the giant robot to win the game for the two of them.

Isabella heads left through Upper Engine and over to Reactor. She pulls off to the side and pretends to start the reactor, just waiting for her first victim to walk in. The first unsuspecting visitor to Reactor ends up being Phineas. He goes about his business like the sweet, unsuspecting crewmate he is. Isabella sneaks up behind him and kills him. 

She starts to run away, leaving the body for someone else to find as she heads back towards Upper Engine, but Perry walks in just in time to see her flee the scene of the crime. Isabella suppresses a gasp. She was so sure she was alone. He just stands there for a moment, unmoving, and Isabella stares at him. Is he going to do anything? Anything at all? Report the body, at least?

Isabella debates reporting it herself and framing him, but if he’s not going to report it, why should she draw attention to it and put a target on her back when he inevitably accuses her back? Instead, she opts to finish her escape route, making it all the way to weapons when --

_**Dead body reported!** _

Isabella’s surprised to see that it’s not Perry who reported it; it’s Buford. That’s oddly comforting. There may still be a witness to her crime, but at least he wasn’t the one to report it, so they won’t necessarily take his word for it, right? She braces herself for the worst just in case, and…

“It’s Perry!” Buford says, not an ounce of doubt in his voice. “He was in Reactor with the body.”

“Well,” Isabella says, and thank god for that acting patch or she would absolutely give herself away right now, “that was easy. One down, one to go.”

“Do not feel bad, Perry,” Baljeet says. “It is your first game. You will get better.”

A red dot appears in the chat just seconds before voting starts. Isabella opens it up to see a message from none other than “imposter” Perry himself.

_Perry: It was Isabella. I saw her running away not long before Buford showed up. Also, how do you report a body? I tried to click on it and nothing happened._

Isabella bites back a laugh. Okay, so maybe he (rightfully) placed the blame on her, but that was kind of adorable. 

“Oh, the tides have shifted,” Vanessa remarks. “What do you have to say to that, Isabella?”

“All I have to say to that is that it was _very_ clever to use the ‘it’s my first time’ excuse to shift the blame,” Isabella says. “But it wasn’t me; I was in Weapons.” She casts her vote for Perry then and there, just to drive it home that she supposedly thinks it was him.

“I don’t know,” Candace says. “You agreed with Buford _really_ quickly.”

“Yes,” Baljeet adds, “that is kind of ‘sus.’” He pauses. “Did I use that right?”

“You used it great,” Buford assures him. 

“I’m voting Isabella,” Vanessa announces.

“Ditto,” Candace says.

“I gotta go with Perry,” Buford says. 

“I will vote Perry as well,” Baljeet says.

_Ferb: Perry is definitely sus, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and skip._

“How about you, Norm?” Vanessa asks. “I think you’re the tie-breaker.”

“Do I vote for the imposter?” Norm asks. 

“Yep,” Vanessa replies. 

“Okay!”

 _Norm has voted_. 

Well, apparently he’s not going to share with the class. Isabella’s not worried, though -- Norm already knows she’s the imposter because they’re on the same team. She’s safe for now, though she wouldn’t be surprised if she’s voted out during the next meeting because suspicion still lingers so she should get as many kills in as possible before then. 

“Who’s left?” Candace asks.

“Perry, vote,” Vanessa says. 

There’s a brief pause, during which Phineas starts streaming the _Jeopardy!!_ theme song in the Discord.

_Perry: How do I vote?_

“I got it,” Vanessa volunteers.

“Wow,” Buford remarks, “maybe he really _is_ just that bad at the game.”

 _Perry has voted_.

With all the votes complete, they’re revealed all in a neat line… and Isabella has four, which means she’s been ejected. What the heck? Why would Norm vote her out? They’re on the same team! 

“Ay, so long, sucka!” Candace says. 

“If you weren’t an imposter, I am so sorry,” Vanessa adds.

The mics all click off, the _Jeopardy!_ music shuts off, and the game resumes. As an ex-imposter, there’s not much to do as a ghost except sabotage, but with Norm as the only remaining imposter, she doesn’t have much faith that will do anything. That’s why when she sees a message from Phineas in the ghost chat, she opts to check that instead.

_Phineas: Welcome to the dead bros club_

_Phineas: We’re very excited to have you_

_Phineas: And by “we” I mean me because apparently I’m the only one you killed and that kinda stings_

Isabella laughs. Well, if she had to share the ghost chat with someone, she’s glad it’s Phineas. It doesn’t get much better than that. 

_Isabella: I just wanted some quality time with you :)_

_Phineas: … I’ll accept it_

_Phineas: Who’s the other imposter?_

Isabella hesitates. It almost feels wrong to divulge her partner-in-crime’s secret, even to a dead guy. Of course, after that voting session…

_Isabella: Norm_

_Phineas: Are you telling me the imposter voted the other imposter out?_

_Isabella: I guess he took “vote for the imposter” a little too seriously_

_Phineas: Apparently lol_

_Buford: WHAT IS UP MOTHERSUCKERS_

Isabella half expects someone to report Buford’s body within seconds. This is Norm’s first time playing, after all. He’s already messed up once; she’d be surprised if he doesn’t mess up again soon.

_Phineas: Welcome to the dead bros club_

_Buford: I KNEW it was Perry i stg people need to listen to me more_

Isabella raises an eyebrow. She’s glad to see she apparently put on a convincing show, but Perry really wasn’t an imposter.

_Phineas: That you did, Buford. That you did._

Isabella giggles. Well, if Phineas wants to pretend Perry was an imposter, who is Isabella to stop him, right?

When there are no new messages for a few seconds, Isabella exits the chat and starts flying around the map to find Norm. She’s almost surprised to see him in Security -- that’s definitely not where _she_ would hide out as an imposter, that’s for sure -- but this is his first time playing; he’ll figure out his own strategy pretty soon. Phineas joins up with her not long after, apparently with the same idea of watching the imposter. 

Perry makes the mistake of walking by Security, the ghost of Buford right behind him, and Norm runs out, kills him, and runs away. Well, that was fast.

_Phineas: Welcome to the dead bros club, Perry!_

_Isabella: Are you going to say that to everyone that dies?_

_Phineas: Yes, yes I am_

_Isabella: …_

_Perry: I thought you couldn’t talk during the game._

_Phineas: You can in the dead bros club!_

_Perry: Oh?_

Isabella finds herself fighting back a laugh once again. This poor guy has absolutely no idea what to do at all times -- not even just with the game anymore, but with the people, too. 

_Buford: Wait so if you’re dead then you’re not the imposter_

_Perry: That is correct._

_Buford: But I thought you were the imposter_

_Perry: I know._

_Buford: Wait if Norm’s one imposter who’s the other_

_Isabella: Surprise!_

_Buford: Wut_

_Buford: So what one imposter voted for the other_

_Buford: That doesn’t even make sense_

_Isabella: Trust me, I know._

Isabella exits the chat, ready to follow Norm around again, but a red dot appears to signify another message. She expects it to be Buford still hung up on the imposter thing, but instead it’s Vanessa asking if anyone else has died or if it’s just Phineas and Isabella.

_Phineas: Welcome to the dead bros club!_

_Vanessa: … thanks?_

_**Dead body reported!** _

It’s Ferb who reported it this time, and it doesn’t really sink in until now that there really aren’t a lot of people left. It’s just Ferb, Candace, Norm, and Baljeet. Apparently the dead bros club is a lot bigger than it feels.

“Wow,” Candace remarks, “I thought this would be a bigger meeting.”

“Where was the body?” Baljeet asks. 

_(((Phineas: At this point, pretty much everywhere)))_

_Ferb: Outside security_

“Did you see anyone?” Candace asks.

_Ferb: No._

“Then we have nothing to go on,” Candace says. “Right?”

“That is not entirely true,” Baljeet says. “It appears that someone killed Perry, which means that he was not an imposter. There are only four of us left, which means there can only be one imposter left.”

_(((Isabella: Ooh he’s being smart maybe he’ll figure it out)))_

“Okay, so?” Candace asks.

_(((Phineas: If anyone is going to figure it out, it’s gonna be him)))_

“ _So_ , the imposter would have known Isabella was the other imposter and not voted for her,” Baljeet says. “I know I am not the imposter, and the only other one not to vote for Isabella was Ferb.”

_(((Phineas: OH COME ON!)))_

_(((Vanessa: NOOOOO!)))_

_(((Buford: I can’t even call him my nerd anymore that was just too dumb)))_

“That’s right!” Candace says. “He skipped! He was the _only one_ who skipped!”

_(((Isabella: It looks like my team might win this after all)))_

“Is that sus?” Norm asks.

_(((Buford: Look at him acting all innocent like he didn’t just murder me in cold blood)))_

“That is _very_ sus, Norm,” Candace replies. “Very sus indeed.”

_Ferb: It wasn’t me. Not wanting to take part in my fellow crewmate’s slaughter should not make me sus._

“It’s definitely Ferb,” Candace says. 

_(((Phineas: NO IT’S NOT DON’T ACCUSE MY BROTHER WITHOUT EVIDENCE)))_

_(((Phineas: THIS IS NOT HOW THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM WORKS)))_

_Ferb: I think it’s Baljeet._

“It is not me!” Baljeet protests. “Why would I point out that it had to be one of us if it was me? It would have been much easier to say nothing, let everyone skip, and kill two more people.”

“He makes a good point,” Candace says.

_Candace has voted._

_Baljeet has voted._

_Ferb: But it wasn’t me!_

_Norm has voted._

_Ferb: Ugh :/_

_Ferb has voted._

All the votes are stacked up on Ferb except Ferb’s own, which is the only one on Baljeet’s name. Ferb is ejected from the spaceship, and…

The game continues.

“What the heck,” Vanessa whispers, the last thing anyone hears before all the mics are turned off.

Isabella -- accompanied by the rest of the ghosts -- follows Norm down to Storage, where he pretends to be doing trash. Someone should really warn him (and Perry) about visual tasks before they blow their cover. She can’t exactly warn him now, though, so she just lets him do it. 

_Buford: I hope one of them sees him faking trash and calls him out on it_

_Vanessa: Don’t we all_

Norm fakes that task for far too long, but no one is around to see it (excluding, of course, the dead bros club), so no one can call him out on it. Then Candace makes the mistake of walking in from Communications, and Norm ditches the trash and murders her.

_**Victory** _

All of the dead turn their mics on -- with the obvious exception, of course, of Perry and Ferb -- as everyone reappears in the lobby. Isabella’s too shaken to even process what just happened. The imposters really won? _Norm_ really won? Almost entirely by himself? During his first ever game? That is… _impressive_ doesn’t even begin to describe it.

“Good game, guys,” Phineas says. “I mean, I was dead for most of it, but good game nonetheless.”

“I am sorry, Perry,” Baljeet says. “I really thought you were the imposter. I see now that you just did not know how to play.”

_Perry is typing…_

“Voting the other imposter out was an interesting idea,” Candace remarks. “Where did that come from?”

“Vanessa said to vote for the imposter,” Norm says. “So I voted for the imposter.”

Vanessa sighs. “Okay, no, Norm, so…” 

She launches into an explanation of how the game _really_ works -- something she’d doubtlessly already tried explaining -- and Isabella tunes her out. She already knows how to play. She’s sure the Perry side of the conversation will be more interesting.

_Perry: It’s okay. Vanessa showed me how to report bodies, so next time I’ll be more prepared._

_Candace: Vanessa’s really just everyone’s teacher today, huh?_

_Ferb: To be fair, they are_ her _friends_

_Phineas: (But they’re our friends now too)_

_Candace: Touche_


	4. Chapter 4

**Imposter**

Candace grins. It’s her and Ferb against the universe, and when it’s them against the universe, they win. It’s a given at this point: there is no one in this group that she trusts more to help murder all their friends. She waits for a few seconds, giving everyone else the chance to figure out where they’re going. It’s her strategy for every round, whether she’s the imposter or not. It’s easier to get her tasks done when she’s alone, _and_ it’s easier to kill people when there’s no crowd. 

When she finally moves, she heads to the right towards Weapons. She’s been known to take her first victim from there, but both Baljeet and Vanessa are doing their tasks in there and she doesn’t want to take that risk, so she moves on. Perry is doing his task in O2 -- assuming, of course, that he can figure out how to do it -- but it’s too close to Weapons for her to even think about killing him, either. It’s not until she gets to Shields that she sees her opportunity. 

Phineas is priming the shields, completely oblivious to her presence. Candace glances down both surrounding halls just to make sure no one is going to walk in on her before she walks up to Phineas and brutally stabs him to death, because, you know, sibling things. 

She leaves the room immediately and heads to Storage as if she has somewhere to be, and when she notices Buford is already there, she pretends to fuel the engines so it doesn’t look like she’s fleeing from the scene of the crime. She waits until he’s done with his task to pretend to finish her own, so he can’t judge by the change in the task bar whether she was faking or not. Fortunately, he heads to the left away from Shields, so it looks like the body will go undiscovered, at least for now. 

She follows him briefly just to avoid doubling back on her victim, but she splits off from him at Electrical and heads to the back section. It’s empty. Perfect. She wouldn't want anyone to sneak up on her in the midst of a murder. Content, she waits on the other side of the dividing barrier for her next victim.

It seems she wasn't the only one with that idea, because the first one to join her in Electrical is Ferb. He walks out immediately, silently acknowledging that this is her space; he'll go hunt somewhere else. She wonders how many people he's killed so far. She can't imagine he hasn't gotten anyone yet, though more than two seems unlikely, too. 

Perry makes the unfortunate decision to enter Electrical. Candace doesn't even try to be subtle; she walks right up to him and kills him. It's always easy to get caught in here so she decides not to take the risk of walking out; instead, she takes the vent out. She crawls over to Security, but Baljeet is already there so that won't work. She crawls over to MedBay instead, but Vanessa’s mid-scan. Well, that sucks. Now what?

She switches between Security and MedBay over and over, waiting for her way out. She could go through Electrical, but if someone were to walk in or walk by, she'd be screwed. It doesn’t help when Vanessa leaves MedBay, only to have her spot replaced by Buford to inspect the sample. Then, of course, Vanessa has to head down to Security just as Baljeet is leaving, so she can’t leave through there, either. She almost wants to head out through Electrical, but if someone else were to walk in and see her leaving, they would know she killed Perry.

Candace sighs. She’ll leave eventually. They _have_ to give her an out, right? There can’t be someone in both MedBay _and_ Electrical forever. Hell, at this point, she’d be fine with someone just reporting one of the bodies as long as it gets her out of here. She almost thinks she’s going to have a clear shot at MedBay when --

_**Winners** _

Candace scoffs. God damn. She knew they were going to win, but she'd thought someone would at least find a body first. She only killed Phineas and Perry. How many people does that mean Ferb has to have killed? But, then again, this _is_ Ferb she’s talking about so she shouldn’t be surprised.

"I can't believe four other people died and the only one that was talking to me was Perry," Phineas whines. "Everyone else is officially rejected from the dead bro's club."

"Some of us had tasks to do, Phineas," Vanessa tells him. 

"I am more important than any task, thank you very much," Phineas says. 

_Perry: Wait, you're supposed to keep doing tasks once you die?_

Candace facepalms. Someone _really_ should have explained this game to the newbies. 

"That's the point," Vanessa says. “You still have to finish your tasks because once all the tasks are done, the crewmates win.”

_Perry: … that is something I did not know._

“Yeah, I probably should have told you that before we started,” she says. 

“I feel bad for whoever’s going to be stuck as Perry’s partner the first time he’s an imposter,” Buford says. “Perry’s gonna have no idea what he’s doing.”

“You don’t know that,” Candace says, because even though she completely agrees, it’s still rude to say right in front of the guy. “Maybe he’ll be a great imposter.”

_Perry: I will definitely be a horrible imposter._

Candace snorts. At least he’s honest with himself.


	5. Chapter 5

**Crewmate**

Well, Ferb can’t complain about that. He does his tasks in a loop, starting in Weapons and working his way around. Admittedly, he’s always a little hesitant to clear the asteroids at the beginning of the game. With the imposter also starting just a room away, there’s always the possibility that the imposter will kill him while he’s distracted, so he likes to try to keep an eye out while he shoots the asteroids. If anyone else enters the room, he leaves, regardless of the status of his task. Fortunately, that’s not the case this round, and he finishes his task with ease.

Next, he’s off to Navigation. This early in the game, he’s not expected to be greeted with a dead body, nor is he expecting to see blue vent, but that sure is what happens. Ferb reports the body -- Phineas, it would seem -- and begins typing immediately.

“Already?” Vanessa says.

“Where was the body?” Buford asks.

_Ferb: Baljeet vented_

_Ferb: In Nav_

“I did not!” Baljeet says indignantly. 

“Really?” Buford asks skeptically. “Where were you?”

“I was… at…” Baljeet sighs. “Yes, I vented.”

_Ferb: See? Would I lie to you?_

“Yes,” Buford, Candace, and Isabella all say in unison.

Everyone votes Baljeet out -- himself included -- and they’re back in the game.

Ferb heads back to Navigation to finish charting the course like he was _going to_ do before his brother’s untimely murder. That one’s easy, so then he’s off to Communications to download data. He barely has time to start the task before the screen begins blinking red, and he knows he should probably help fix it… but downloading files takes _forever_ , and he doesn’t want to sit through this again so he finishes this half of the task first. Once he has the files, he opts to go check it out, only to see that the ship is apparently running out of oxygen. Maybe he _shouldn’t_ have finished downloading the files during a time-sensitive sabotage…

He runs up to Admin, where he finds that Buford has already beat him to it. Ferb’s not entirely sure he trusts Buford to do it, so he decides to type in the code as well. As he’s typing, he gets a Discord message from Perry -- “ _Why is my screen blinking red?_ ) -- that makes him smile, and, admittedly, distracts him for just a few seconds. By the time the oxygen is back to normal and Ferb returns to the game, he’s alone in Admin with Candace’s body, which he reports without hesitation.

“Damn, you’re finding all the bodies today,” Vanessa remarks.

“Where was it?” Buford asks.

_Ferb: Admin_

_Ferb: She wasn’t there when I went in. I entered the code, and then she was dead._

“Did you see anyone else?” Isabella asks. “Maybe when you were heading there?”

_Ferb: Just Buford_

Not that he thinks much of it; it was Buford who helped Ferb prove that Baljeet was an imposter. As far as Ferb’s concerned, the guy is clean.

“No, I wasn’t,” Buford says, and now Ferb’s _really_ confused. “I was in O2 with Vanessa and Perry.”

“It’s true; he was there when I finished typing the code,” Vanessa says.

 _Perry: I still don’t know what just happened_.

_Ferb: Buford was in Admin. I saw him there._

“I was in O2!” Buford insists. “Vanessa can vouch for me! We already know Baljeet was one imposter. If I’m the second, why would she lie?”

 _Ferb: I don’t know, but the more you talk, the more convinced I am that you’re the imposter_. 

_Ferb has voted_.

_Buford has voted._

“Can I just point out,” Isabella says, “in a completely non-partisan way, that Ferb’s reported both bodies?”

“That’s a little sus,” Vanessa says.

“That’s _very_ sus,” Buford agrees.

 _Vanessa has voted_.

Wow, how quickly they turn on you.

_Ferb: We’ve already established that Baljeet killed Phineas. How does that place the blame on me?_

“Oh, right…” Isabella says awkwardly. “That does kind of mess up my thought process there.”

“Who should I vote for?” Norm asks.

Vanessa sighs. “We don’t tell you who to vote for, Norm. You look at what everyone says and you guess who’s the imposter based on that.”

“Or you can skip,” Isabella adds, “which is what I’m doing right now.”

 _Isabella has voted_.

“Okay!” Norm says cheerfully.

 _Norm has voted_.

“That just leaves you, Perry,” Isabella says. “What do you got for us?”

 _Perry: I still don’t understand why my screen was blinking red_.

Vanessa starts to explain the concept of sabotaging, but the voting timer runs out as she’s finishing, and Perry doesn’t get the chance to vote. It might be for the best -- Ferb and Buford each got two votes (apparently Norm voted for Buford) and Isabella skipped, so whomever Perry voted for would have been ejected, and with the evidence stacked against him, Ferb has to assume Perry would have voted for him if he had the chance.

Now that they’re back to the game, Ferb makes a mental note to be careful around Buford. He’s all but admitted to being the last imposter, and it looks like Ferb may have made his hit list. Ferb waits to see which way Buford goes -- towards Upper Engine -- before he makes his move, going past Weapons and over to Storage, where he’s been tasked with fueling the engine. Next stop is the dreaded Electrical. Part of him feels like he should always start in Electrical, but he’s sure he’s not the only one to think of that, and it would be far too easy for an imposter to follow him back.

Ferb heads to the back of the room, ready to complete his tasks and get out while he’s still alive to do so. He likes to look around as he’s doing tasks, so the fact that he can’t see anything in Electrical always annoys him. He starts with wires, which is easy enough. He exits the window, ready to start his next task…

And sees Buford vent into Electrical with him.

Ferb immediately runs away, though logically he knows Buford most likely can’t kill him yet -- if he’s venting, it’s probably because he just killed someone, and he still has to wait for the 45 second kill timer to wear off. Unfortunately, 45 seconds is not a lot of time, though it makes for a great head start. The fact that Buford doesn’t follow him confirms his suspicion that murder is off the table for the moment, but it doesn’t calm his fears. If Buford was willing to vent with Ferb right there, he knows he can’t be safe.

And, coincidentally, that’s when he gets a Discord message from the imposter himself.

_Buford: Don’t freak out lol why would I kill you when I could frame you_

Ferb is in Lower Engine when he gets the message, and though he’s alone, he doesn’t want to draw any more suspicion than has already been placed on him by just standing there and doing nothing. He pretends to fuel the engine just so it looks like he's doing something, then swipes down on the notification. In hindsight, maybe playing on mobile when he tends to type a lot was not his brightest idea, because it’s virtually impossible to do two things at once.

_Ferb: I knew you were the imposter._

_Buford: No dip Sherlock_

_Buford: You just_ had _to point out that I was in admin with you_

_Buford: You dug your own grave :))))_

Ferb swipes out of that conversation with a scowl. He wasn't even accusing the guy of anything when he pointed out that he was in the room. He was just trying to be a good crewmate, and this is how he's repaid? That is _so_ not fair. 

Ferb glances around the room. Isabella is just walking in, so it's probably a good thing he faked a task instead of just standing around. He heads to Upper Engine to finish fueling the engine, and notices out of the corner of his eye — or, more specifically, out of the corner of the screen — that Isabella makes a U-turn and heads back down the hall towards Electrical and Storage. Had he not already known Buford was the imposter, he might have entertained the thought that that was a little suspicious; as it stands now, he's more concerned with not being thrown out of the spaceship for a crime he didn't commit. 

Ferb is just finishing his task when an emergency meeting is called. It looks like Buford's taken out Norm, so it's down to Isabella, Vanessa, Perry, Buford, and Ferb. It was Isabella who called the emergency meeting, though Vanessa is the first to speak. 

"What happened?" she asks immediately.

"I'm pretty sure Ferb just faked a task," Isabella says, "because the task bar did not move."

"Yes, join the 'Ferb is the imposter's side!" Vanessa says. 

_Isabella has voted._

_Vanessa has voted._

_Buford has voted_.

Well, that's all they needed to vote him out. That’s it for him.

 _Ferb: You’re all wrong, just so you know_.

_Ferb: He told me himself that he was the imposter. That’s why I was faking a task._

_Ferb has voted_.

 _Perry has voted_.

Ferb already knew he was out before he voted for Buford, but it's still interesting to see how the votes are laid out — three for him, one for Buford, and it looks like Perry opted to skip. The crewmates yeet him out of the ship, and, as anticipated, the game continues. 

Ferb can’t help but notice that Vanessa hangs out at the emergency meeting button after everyone else leaves. He resolves to keep an eye on her, but changes his mind when he sees a red dot on the chat.

_Phineas: Welcome to the dead bro's club!_

_Phineas: I hope you enjoyed your trip to the deep abyss of space!_

_Ferb: :/_

Vanessa hits the emergency meeting button, presumably as soon as it’s available to use.

"Clearly Ferb wasn't the imposter," Vanessa says, "so I'm voting Buford."

_Vanessa has voted._

_Isabella has voted._

_(((Baljeet: Thank you, Vanessa!)))_

_(((Candace: You realize if he loses, you lose too, right?)))_

_(((Baljeet: I will gladly lose if it means Buford does not win. He sacrificed me.)))_

"Hey, woah, I didn't even do anything!" Buford complains. "Come on, Vanessa, you saw me in O2 when Ferb said I was in Admin. Can you blame me for thinking it's him?"

"Ferb _just_ said you told him you were the imposter," Isabella reminds him. "Why would he lie about that?"

"I dunno, maybe he was using it as a cover for whatever embarrassing stuff he was actually doing."

_(((Ferb: I don't know what he's implying with that but I'd like to be excluded from this narrative)))_

"He had a lot of evidence," Isabella says. "Evidence that he'd have no reason to make up."

Buford scoffs. " _'Evidence'_ like that I was in Admin when I was in O2?"

 _Perry has voted_.

"Who'd you vote for?" Buford asks. 

_(((Phineas: Do you think he's got our backs?)))_

_(((Candace: I don't have that much faith in him)))_

_Perry: I think Buford is probably the imposter, but the whole "being in two places at once" thing is confusing me too much to vote for him, especially because he /did/ tell us that Baljeet was the first imposter. I skipped._

"I'm glad at least someone has at least a little faith in me," Buford says. "Thank you, Perry. You're the real MVP."

_Perry: :)_

_Buford has voted._

With two votes for Buford and two skips, no one is ejected. Ferb groans, exasperated. The evidence was _right there_. Maybe if Perry understood the vent cycles, he'd realize Buford was perfectly capable of getting to O2 from Admin in just a few seconds. 

Phineas looks over from his spot on the couch. "Me too, Ferb. Me too."

"At least your killer was voted out."

"Well, you do got a point there," Phineas says. 

Ferb really just wants to follow Buford around and see what his master plan is, but he still has a few tasks left to finish. It won't take long now that he can fly through walls, but at this rate, the game itself won't last long, either. He's half tempted to just give up on his tasks and follow the imposter, but as a loyal crewmate, he knows he shouldn't. 

"I'll give you the live updates on Buford," Phineas tells him as if reading his mind. Sometimes Ferb is convinced he really does. 

Ferb gives him a thumbs up before setting off to get his work done. He passes the living crewmates a few times in the process, and he's relieved to see the task bar is slowly making its way to the end. He doubts it will happen, but it would be nice. 

"Oof, he's gonna kill Perry," Phineas says. "They're alone in Electrical."

"Good," Candace calls from the kitchen table. "It's what he gets for killing our chance at vengeance."

Ferb bites back a laugh. He's almost inclined to agree, though he understands where the guy was coming from. There wasn't necessarily concrete evidence that it was Buford, but it was enough that most people probably would have voted him out. 

"Whoop, nope, never mind," Phineas says. "He just vented right in front of him."

"Then Perry's gonna vote him out, right?" Candace asks. 

"I don't know; he's in the middle of a task," Phineas says. "He might not have noticed."

That was a hell of a risk, and completely unnecessary, too. He's really living on the edge as the imposter, isn't he?

"Has he killed anyone else yet?" Candace asks. "Is he waiting for the kill counter to go down?"

"Nope," Phineas says. "I got no idea what he's doing — or where he's going, for that matter, so I gotta look around now."

Ferb’s screen begins flashing red. He glances at his task list for an explanation.

_**Reactor meltdown in 29** _

Well, Buford may have just won. There are only four crewmates left, and it takes two to stop the reactor meltdown. If Buford kills one more person -- and he probably will -- then both remaining crewmates are going to have to stop it together. Couple that with the fact that Perry doesn’t know how to do _anything_ , and it’s looking like Buford might have a very good shot.

“Whoop, Buford just killed Vanessa,” Phineas says.

“Where?” Candace asks. “Near Reactor?”

“Nope; Nav,” Phineas replies. 

Ferb checks his task list, and, as luck may have it, he has a task in Reactor. He can go check on what progress they’re making stopping the meltdown.

The red dot appears in the ghost chat, and Ferb stops in the space between Electrical and Security to see what’s going on in the so-called “dead bros club.”

_Phineas: Welcome to the dead bros club_

Of course; Ferb should have expected that one.

_Vanessa: Sorry Ferb_

_Vanessa: In my defense tho you were very sus_

_Ferb: Yes, yes I was._

Ferb arrives at Reactor just as the blinking stops, and sure enough, Perry and Isabella are both there with their hands on the scanners. Buford makes it to Reactor just moments later, and immediately, Isabella runs past him and towards Upper Engine. 

Oh, right. If Perry and Isabella both stopped the reactor meltdown, they can’t be imposters. As far as they know, that would leave Vanessa and Buford, and since Buford is the only one to show up… Well, this is _far_ more interesting than tasks, that’s for sure.

Buford must realize what Isabella’s plan is, because just before she enters the room, Buford closes the Upper Engine doors. Isabella turns back around and heads to Lower Engine, followed by both Buford and Perry. Before she can leave Lower Engine, Buford closes the doors there, too, and she has to wait the ten seconds for those ones to open.

_Candace: I hate that she knows it’s him and she can’t even do anything about it_

_Phineas: You have to admit tho the fact that we have no idea if she’s gonna make it to the report button in time makes this really entertaining_

_Candace: More like really frustrating_

As soon as the Lower Reactor doors open, Isabella runs out, Buford right behind her. She tries to run through Storage, where, once again, Buford traps her. She waits at the door that would lead her to the hall outside Admin, and, as soon as the door opens, and runs out. She almost makes it to the cafeteria door when, unsurprisingly, Buford locks down the cafe. 

Ferb is half convinced Isabella is already running forward despite the door in the way, because as soon as it opens, she’s running into the kitchen and towards the emergency meeting button. Buford stops in the doorway, and Ferb gapes at him. That’s it? He’s going to let her hit it? He’s throwing in the towel already?

_**Reactor meltdown in 29** _

Ferb has to admit, that was good. She can’t call an emergency meeting during a crisis, no matter how certain she is that it’s Buford. He half expects her to make the treacherous journey to Reactor, but instead, she heads to the right towards weapons. It’s only then that Buford runs after her to kill her, and, in all honesty, Ferb isn’t even upset. He played that _really_ well, especially at the end. He deserved the victory.

_**Defeat** _

“Did you see that?” Buford yells. “Did you guys see that?”

“I can’t believe it!” Isabella says. “I knew it was you! I figured it out, like, 90 seconds ago, and you wouldn’t let me to the emergency meeting button!”

“I literally could have killed you before you got to Storage,” Buford says with a laugh. “The kill cooldown ended _way_ before you got to the cafeteria. But it was _so_ much fun watching you suffer.”

“Okay, screw you,” Isabella says, but she’s clearly laughing so she can’t be that upset.

“I do not understand why you had to place the suspicion on me,” Baljeet complains.

“Again I say, ‘it was so much fun watching you suffer,’” Buford says simply.

_Ferb: Nicely done, Buford. You deserved that one._

“Of course I did,” Buford says. “That’s what I get for being the greatest player of all time.”

Vanessa scoffs. “All in favor of voting Buford out at the beginning of every round, say ‘aye!’”

The Discord is flooded with “aye”s, and Ferb and Perry both throw theirs in the chat.

“Ouch, guys,” Buford says. “Ouch.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Norm, did you put something in the oven?” Heinz yells across the penthouse.

Norm perks up at that. “It’s muffin time!” 

He takes out his earbuds -- a gift from Vanessa, of course -- and leaves his closet mid-round. Heinz is sitting on the couch, finishing up an episode of his soap opera, and Norm covers his ears instinctively. He’s still more than a full season behind and he doesn’t want any spoilers. After risking another glance at the screen, he recognizes it as an episode he’s already seen, and in hindsight, he probably should have known. Heinz wouldn’t dare to watch a new episode without Perry, and most episodes that he could rewatch are ones that Norm’s already seen.

“Get your muffins out of the oven before they burn the place down,” Heinz says.

Norm’s smile flips upside down. Did he really leave his muffins in there for that long? He makes his way to the kitchen, and, sure enough, there’s smoke coming out of the oven. He pulls the tray out, and it’s clear that it’s not going to be muffin time after all. Well, _those_ are going in the trash. It’s a good thing he has more batter! He’ll just make more!

Norm pours some batter into another dozen muffin tins and slips them into the oven. He doesn’t want to burn any more muffins, so he heads back to his room to grab his laptop. If he sits in the kitchen _with_ the muffins, he can’t _forget_ the muffins, right? He makes his way back to his room and grabs his computer, where he finds that he’s apparently been killed since he left. He carries his laptop through the lab and towards the kitchen, earbuds swinging back and forth with each step. 

Heinz glances back at him. “Are you still playing that game?” 

“I am!” Norm says. 

“Are Perry the Platypus and Vanessa still playing?” 

“They are!” Norm tells him. “Perry the Platypus did very well in the last round.”

“Oh, well, tell him I say ‘good job,’” Heinz says.

“Okay, sir!” 

He heads back to the kitchen and sets his laptop at the table. They’re in the middle of a match right now, though no one is in the cafeteria with him so he’s not sure who’s still alive or who the imposter is. He knows his microphone is supposed to stay off during the match, but he decides he can make an exception here.

“Perry the Platypus!” Norm says. “Dr. D said good job surviving the last round!”

Perry the Platypus doesn’t respond -- of course he doesn’t respond; he’s a platypus _and_ he’s playing a game -- so Norm resumes playing like nothing happened. He may be dead, but he still has a lot of tasks to do.

_**Dead body reported** _

The survivors at the moment are Baljeet, Buford, Candace, Ferb, Isabella, and Vanessa, and Isabella was the one to report the body. Norm is originally going to pay attention to the actual conversation happening, but he gets distracted when he sees a message in a private chat.

_Perry: Tell Dr. D that I said thank you, Norm! :)_

Norm walks out into the lab, where Heinz is still watching TV. “Perry the Platypus said thank you!”

Heinz pauses his soap opera and turns around. “Perry the Platypus doesn’t talk, though.”

“He typed it in the chat,” Norm explains. 

“There’s a chat?” Heinz asks. “Then why do you have to talk so loudly?”

“Everyone except Perry the Platypus and Ferb use the voice chat,” Norm says. “Although Phineas types a lot, too, because he’s usually dead.”

Heinz just stares at him. 

“I’m going back to my friends now!” Norm says.

“That’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear you say,” Heinz mutters, already turning his attention back to his soap opera.

Norm heads back to his computer just in time to see the _**Victory**_ screen. His timing is impeccable. It’s the little things in life, you know?


	7. Chapter 7

Phineas is, once again, a crewmate. He’s almost beginning to suspect that the game has a grudge against him or something. He can’t exactly blame the game itself for the fact that he always dies, though, so maybe this is just his luck running cold. Is Murphy’s Law contagious or something? He hasn’t actually _seen_ Milo lately, but it’s the only explanation he can think of.

Phineas hits tab and his map pops up. His two closest tasks are inspecting the sample in Medbay and cleaning the filter in O2, and though it won’t _really_ make much of a difference which way he goes, he decides to hit up Medbay first just to get the countdown started. He makes a run for it, hoping to get it over with quickly so he can go work on the rest of his tasks, because they’re basically all on the other side of the map. 

He notices as soon as he opens the task that Perry followed him in, and he braces himself for his inevitable death. He hits the button to start the sample going as quickly as he can just so he won’t have to redo it once he’s dead, and when he exits the window, Perry is mid-scan. Huh. Maybe he won’t die just yet. He debates starting an emergency meeting just to let everyone know that he’s clean because god knows he won’t make it to the first meeting if he doesn’t initiate it himself. He decides against it, if only because he knows how much it sucks to be interrupted mid-task and have to start all over again.

Phineas leaves Medbay to go finish his other tasks. He runs through the cafeteria because he’s noticed that people don’t tend to die in the cafeteria that often so it’s probably his safest route. That brings him to his next task: cleaning the filter in O2. He yeets the leaves out of the spaceship, and then he’s off to prime the shields. He passes Buford and Baljeet on the way down, and they both go about their lives like nothing happened so he does the same.

After Shields, he’s off to the dreaded Electrical. He’s half expecting the imposter to be waiting in the back for him, but instead he’s greeted by Vanessa’s dead body. He reports it immediately, already reaching to turn his mic on.

“Where?” Candace asks.

“Electrical,” Phineas says.

“Did you see anyone?” Candace asks.

“I mean, Baljeet and Buford somewhere near there, but they might have been passing through,” Phineas says. “I didn’t see anyone coming out of Electrical, at least.”

“What?” Isabella scoffs. “I was just there, like, 10 seconds ago -- when Vanessa was heading in, actually. There’s no way anyone killed her without you _or_ me seeing them.

“Apparently there is,” Phineas says with a noncommittal shrug. “Surprise?”

“I don’t buy it,” Isabella says. “Remind me to stay as far away from you as I can this round.”

Phineas bites back a laugh. “Thanks, Isabella. Love you, too.”

“She has a point,” Buford says. “I mean, this is the first time Phineas has lived long enough to make it to the emergency meeting, and he just _happens_ to report the body, _and_ Isabella said the timelines don’t line up?”

Phineas gapes at his screen. “Are you serious? You think I’m sus because I’m _alive_?”

“He does have a point,” Candace says.

“No, he doesn’t!” Phineas looks up at his sister in disbelief. “And not just because it’s my second time making it to the emergency meeting. You seriously think it’s me?”

Candace shrugs. “Yeah, kinda.”

Norm chimes in with, “This is not very sound logic!”

“No, no it’s not,” Phineas agrees. “Come on, guys! This is farther than I’ve made it all day! Can’t a guy get another few minutes of having to walk _around_ walls before you throw him into the deep abyss of space?”

“No,” Candace says simply.

_Candace has voted._

Phineas scoffs. That’s… _wow._

“I’m sorry, but there is _no way_ someone went to Electrical and killed someone without either of us seeing them,” Isabella says.

_Isabella has voted._

_Buford has voted._

Phineas frowns. “Come on! Norm, you believe me! Back me up here!”

“I do not know how to do that,” Norm says. “It appears they have already made up their mind.”

Phineas groans very dramatically. “Fine, but I’m never going to forgive you guys if you actually vote me out.” He presses skip.

_Phineas has voted._

_Ferb has voted._

_Norm has voted._

_Baljeet has voted._

_Perry has voted._

The final votes are revealed. Three people skipped, Phineas included; everyone else voted for him. He’s ejected from the spaceship, and he shoots Ferb a (playful) glare. “Et tu, Brute?”

Ferb’s only response is, “Then fall, Caesar.”

Phineas purses his lips, but there’s really nothing for him to do about it now, so he turns his attention back to the game with a sigh. So much for staying alive, huh?

Actually…

Phineas alt-tabs out of Discord and opens up YouTube instead. He searches up the video he’s looking for and finds the right part before he hits play. He switches back to Discord, and, while everyone else is playing the game (and while almost all of them are still alive, not that he’s bitter or anything), he shares his screen in the voice chat just so everyone ~~can~~ has to hear the audio.

“ _Staying alive, staying alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, staying alive, staying alive. Ah, ah, ah_ \--”

“What the _frick_ , Phineas?” Buford asks, and it brings a small smile to Phineas’s face to know he had to stop what he was doing for at least a second or two to turn his mic on for that.

“This is what you took from me,” Phineas says, albeit a _little_ too dramatically for the situation.

“And suddenly I’m glad we took it from you,” Candace says.

A red dot appears in the ghost chat, and Phineas clicks on it.

_Vanessa: Please leave that going for the rest of the round no matter how many people tell you to stop_

_Vanessa: Make. Them. Suffer._

_Phineas: You bet I will_

Phineas floats around the map for a minute or so, and everyone appears to have gotten back to their tasks so he decides to do the same. He has to admit, as much as he wanted to stay alive, it’s way easier to do his tasks when he can fly through the walls. He gets so wrapped up in them that he doesn’t even notice the red dot on the ghost chat until a minute or so after it shows up.

_Baljeet: Hello!_

_Vanessa: Oof, you too?_

_Baljeet: Yes. Unfortunately Buford found me in Electrical and killed me._

_Vanessa: What an L_

_Phineas: Oh hey Baljeet when did you join the dead bros club?_

_Baljeet: Not very long ago._

_Phineas: Wait a second_

_Phineas: WAIT A SECOND_

_Phineas: BUFORD WAS THE IMPOSTER?_

_Vanessa: Isabella’s the other one_

_Phineas: WHAT_

_Vanessa: You good, Phineas?_

_Phineas: THEY KNEW IT WASN’T ME_

_Phineas: THEY SACRIFICED ME_

_Phineas: AND FOR WHAT?_

_Phineas: I CAN’T BELIEVE IT_

_Phineas: THEY DASHED ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS_

_Phineas: FOR NO REASON_

_Phineas: AND PEOPLE BELIEVED THEM TOO_

_Phineas: MY WHOLE FAMILY TRIED TO MURDER ME_

_Phineas: BASED ON A CAREFULLY ORCHESTRATED LIE_

_Phineas: I HATE THIS_

_Vanessa: Your pain is very amusing_

_Phineas: NO IT’S NOT_

_Baljeet: She is right. This is much more entertaining than my tasks._

_Phineas: STOP IT I HATE YOU BOTH_

_Vanessa: :)_

_**Dead body reported** _

_(((Baljeet: Wow, that was very fast.)))_

_(((Phineas: Imagine Ferb avenging you instead of throwing you out of a spaceship wow wish I could relate)))_

“Where?” Candace asks.

_Ferb: Electrical_

_(((Vanessa: Everyone’s dying in electrical today huh)))_

“Did you see anyone?” Isabella asks.

_Ferb: Norm was outside, but he wasn’t moving so I think he was AFK._

Phineas waits a second to see if Norm will respond, and when there’s no answer, he hops over to the Discord.

_Phineas: @Norm are you alive?_

“So do we skip?” Candace asks.

“I guess so,” Isabella says. “I mean, there’s only one imposter left and there are five crewmates, so it’s not like we’re in any rush.”

_(((Baljeet: She is a very good liar.)))_

_(((Phineas: Yes, yes she is)))_

_Isabella has voted._

“Oh, did someone die?” Norm asks. 

“Yeah, like three feet away from you, apparently.” Buford says.

“That is very unfortunate,” Norm says. He pauses. “That would depend on your definition of ‘alive,’ Phineas. Scientists have over one hundred ways to classify the quality of ‘alive,’ and I would imagine I fit some descriptions but not others. I choose to think that --”

“Alright,” Buford interrupts. “I’m voting for him.”

 _Buford has voted_.

“Ouch!” Norm says.

_(((Vanessa: Lol poor Norm)))_

“Nice, Buford,” Candace deadpans.

_Candace has voted._

_Perry has voted._

_Ferb has voted._

_Norm has voted._

The final votes are revealed. Buford voted for Norm; two people both voted for him, and the other three skipped. No one gets ejected -- though some feelings are hurt.

“Hey, why did people vote for me?” Buford whines.

Perry sends his response through Discord.

_Perry: That was for trying to vote out Norm._

Buford scoffs. “Okay, fine. But I’m voting for you next time just out of spite.”

Phineas opens up the ghost chat. 

_Phineas: Welp at least we know Perry’s on our side_

_Phineas: Not because he knows Buford’s the imposter, but I’ll take what I can get_

He goes about his tasks like a responsible crewmate, and he finishes them fairly quickly because, again, there are no walls in the way. He floats around the map for someone to follow. He runs into -- err, runs _through_ Buford -- and debates stalking him until the end to see who he kills. Instead, he floats around until he finds Isabella because if he’s going to follow someone, it might as well be his traitorous girlfriend, right? But as soon as he reaches her, she kills Ferb and the game is over anyway.

_**Defeat** _

“I told you!” Phineas yells before they’re even given the chance to go back to the lobby. “I told you I was innocent, and you killed me anyway!”

“Well, stop being so sus and we won’t vote you out,” Isabella says teasingly.

“ _Butyouknowitwasn’tme_ ,” Phineas squeaks in a way that is not comprehensible in the slightest and he knows it.

_Ferb: Wow, Isabella. And I trusted you when you said my brother killed Vanessa._

“It’s not my fault you guys believe anything anyone tells you,” Isabella says. 

_Ferb: But I_ trusted _you and you stabbed me in the back._

_Ferb: Well, you stabbed me in the stomach._

_Ferb: You took out your tongue and snapped through my brains._

_Ferb: You could have at least invited me to dinner first._

Isabella laughs. “Why would I invite you to dinner when you _are_ dinner?”

_Ferb: … fair point._

Buford snorts. “Among Us vore.”

Everyone immediately yells some form of “No!” and Buford just laughs like the maniac he is.

“I still don’t know who the imposters were,” Norm says, sounding way too cheerful -- which Phineas is decently sure is his default setting at this point.

“Me and Buford,” Isabella says. “We totally tag-teamed on that ‘Phineas is the imposter’ thing.”

“Wasn’t planned at all,” Buford adds. “We are so in sync.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Isabella says.

“Oh no, my muffins!” Norm says suddenly, and half the discord cracks up at how sudden that was. 

“Alright, betting pool,” Buford says. “Who thinks his muffins survived and who thinks they’re burnt?”

Everyone throws out their thoughts at once, and it’s nearly impossible to figure out who says what. Fortunately, Ferb steps in and brings some semblance of order to this chaos -- because, you know, this is the most important thing they could be discussing.

 _Ferb: If you think the muffins are okay, react with a muffin. If you think they’re burnt, react with a fire_.

Everyone once again makes their bets. The votes are split half and half -- Phineas, Candace, Buford, and Vanessa all guess that the muffins are burnt, and Ferb, Baljeet, Isabella, and Perry all guess that they’re edible. Phineas has to admit, he was inclined to agree with Vanessa regardless of which way she voted -- she knows him better than anyone else, after all -- but he didn’t feel like waiting to see what she reacted with. 

_Perry: Vanessa, you think the muffins are okay?_

“Yeah, I’m sure the muffins are fine,” she says. “He makes muffins all the time. I have faith in him.”

“What about the ‘oh no’?” Isabella asks.

“Well, it’s not like there was a fire alarm going off in the background, so I think we’re good,” she says.

“Well, there _might_ have been a fire alarm going on in the background,” Buford says. “I don’t think we’ll ever know because _someone_ won’t turn off the Bee Gees.”

Phineas -- who had, for the record, restarted the song multiple times since he died -- just smiles. “Karma.”

“I told him to leave it on just to spite you and Isabella,” Vanessa says. “I’m glad to see it’s working.”

“What did _I_ do to deserve this?” Baljeet asks. “I did not vote for you.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s fair,” Phineas admits. “Alright, I’ll turn it off, but _only_ for Baljeet.” He exits out of the Chrome window entirely. 

Buford sniffles. “I’ve never been so proud to call you my nerd.”

There’s some quiet shuffling from Norm’s end of the call, and Phineas only knows it’s his end because in the brief silence of the voice chat, Discord thinks Norm’s talking. 

“Ah, the prodigal son returns,” Vanessa says. “So, Norm, how are the muffins?”

“I do not know,” Norm says. “Dad, how are the muffins?”

Well, it looks like Vanessa was right after all if Dr. D is eating one.

“He says they are okay!” Norm says.

“That means he likes them, for everyone not acquainted with my dad’s Norm dialect,” Vanessa says. “So, I reiterate, he did _not_ burn the muffins.”

“I did burn the first batch,” Norm says. 

“Ah, so we were _all_ right,” Phineas says. 

“What?”

“Nothing!” Phineas, Isabella, Vanessa, and Buford all say in unison.

Someone must be talking to Norm outside of the call, because he says, “Yes, they are! Would you like me to put you on speaker?”

_Perry: Oh no_

_Vanessa: Run while you still can Perry_

“You’re on speaker!” Norm says. 

“Hi, Vanessa!” the familiar voice of Dr. D says. “Hi, Perry the Platypus!”

“Hey, Dad,” Vanessa says. “Perry says hi, too.”

_Perry: No, I didn’t._

_Vanessa: No you didn’t but he doesn’t have to know that_

“What are you up to, Dr. D?” Phineas asks. 

“Just watching some tv,” he says. 

_Perry: Someone ask what he’s watching_

He typed that so fast, Phineas barely even had time to process the “ _Perry is typing_ ” before it showed up. Clearly he’s pretty interested in that. Vanessa steps in and asks it for him.

“Just some Spanish show,” Dr. D says. “ _Finge que este es un nombre_.”

Once again, Perry starts typing immediately.

“You’re _still_ watching that?” Vanessa says in disbelief.

“It’s a good show!” Dr. D says defensively.

_Perry: Ask if he’s watching new episodes because if he’s watching it without me I’m going to have to leave the game and hit him._

Phineas can’t help but laugh, and it sounds like he’s not the only one. 

“Reruns still?” Vanessa asks.

“Obviously,” Dr. D says. “Last time I tried to watch new ones alone, Perry the Platypus almost broke my nose.”

“Perry!” Isabella squeals. 

_Perry: :)_

_Ferb: Why does he keep calling you a platypus?_

Perry starts typing out an actual answer, but as a joke, Phineas decides to throw his own two cents in.

_Phineas: Obviously he’s our pet Perry duh_

Vanessa snorts. “Yeah, Phineas, I got your pet platypus to play Among Us,” she says sarcastically. “That’s exactly what’s happening here.”

_Perry: It’s an inside joke._

_Perry: # [ ] >_

_Phineas: That would explain why you know how to make a text platypus_

_Perry: :)_

_**The server closed the room due to inactivity.** _

Everyone groans in unison. They probably should have seen that one coming. They’ve been talking for far too long without playing a round -- not that Phineas really minds. They may have planned this to play Among Us, but in reality, he’s just happy to be able to talk to his friends in whatever capacity works.

“Okay, I’ve gotten that reaction from a lot of people but I don’t _think_ I did anything this time,” Dr. D says. “What just happened?”

“The game closed,” Phineas says. “No big deal. I can open a new server when we’re ready to play again.”

“Hey, Dr. D, you should play a round!” Isabella says.

“I don’t even know what you’re playing,” Dr. D says.

“That’s okay,” Isabella says. “I’m not entirely sure Perry knows, either.”

_Perry: Ouch._

“He doesn’t have a Discord,” Vanessa says.

_Isabella: If Norm leaves his on speaker he could probably just play like that_

_Isabella: Unless you don’t want him to play which is why I’m not saying it out loud_

“I also don’t know what Discord is,” Dr. D says. “Unless that is the name of the game because I know Vanessa told me what it was but I don’t remember.”

_Vanessa: Uhhhhhhh_

_Vanessa: Perry your call_

_Perry: …_

_Perry: This could cause problems._

_Vanessa: Exactly. I made it your call so that if it does cause problems Carl will yell at you instead of me_

_Perry: Fair enough._

For Dr. D’s sake, Phineas says, “Vanessa’s trying to figure out if it would be possible for you to play with us.” That’s not entirely true, but he doesn’t need to know that his daughter and his daughter’s friend from work (and _his_ friend, apparently?) don’t know whether they want him to join in.

_Perry: I say let him play. Any damage he does will be (mostly) reversible. It always is._

_Perry: If everyone else is okay with it, of course._

“Of course we are!” Isabella says immediately. “Dr. D, do you have another computer? Or a smartphone or a tablet or something?”

“‘Course I do,” Dr. D says. 

“Cool, because now you _have_ to play,” Isabella says. “Go get your computer or phone or whatever and bring it wherever Norm is. We’ll wait!”

“Okay…?” Dr. D says uncertainly.

Phineas mutes his mic and looks between his two siblings. “How are we feeling about this?”

“He’s a _dad_ , Phineas,” Candace says. “If I wanted a dad to play with us, I would have asked _our_ dad.”

“Fair point,” Phineas says, though he has to admit, it’s hard to think of Dr. D as being someone’s dad. He may be in his late 50s, but he’s always pretty much acted like he was their age, at least when Phineas sees him. “Ferb, how ‘bout you?”

“We finally filled the game,” Ferb says. “I think it will be great.”


	8. Chapter 8

Heinz sits on the other end of the kitchen table, his phone in his hands, and waits for the app to finish downloading. He tried increasing the internet speed once, but after the entire tri-state area lost internet for a few hours… Well, he hasn’t touched the internet since. Not, of course, that you can _touch_ the internet. It’s more that he -- well, you get the idea.

“Dad, Perry the Platypus wants to talk to you!” Norm says.

Heinz perks up at that. “Really?” He hops out of his chair and heads to Norm’s side of the table to look. “That’s him right there?”

“Yes, it is!” Norm says. “Would you like to borrow my computer?”

Heinz just turns Norm’s laptop towards him without an answer. He has to squint to read the text, but with a little effort he can make it out.

_Perry: Can I talk to Heinz?_

_Perry: Without anyone else from the discord seeing?_

_Norm: Sure!_

Well, that’s a fairly cut-and-dry conversation. Ah, well, he didn’t expect Norm and Perry to be discussing Shakespeare in their free time, so he’s not too surprised.

_Heinz: Hi Perry the Platypus!_

_Heinz: (this is Heinz)_

_Perry: Hi!_

_Perry: I have to tell you something very quickly before the game starts._

_Heinz: Okay?_

_Perry: Vanessa and Norm are the only two in the game that know who I am. Everyone else thinks I’m just a human friend of Vanessa’s, and for legal reasons, they can’t know that’s not true. I can’t really explain why that’s so important, but it is so I’d really appreciate it if you helped me keep the secret._

Heinz raises an eyebrow. Why doesn’t he want them to know he’s a platypus? He’s not embarrassed by it, is he? Heinz hopes not. He makes a mental note to assure Perry the Platypus that his platypusness is nothing to be ashamed of next time they see each other -- which will probably be tomorrow, but they haven’t officially made plans for it yet -- but it’s probably best that they _don’t_ have that conversation on Norm’s computer. 

_Heinz: I can do that._

_Perry: You’re the best <3_

_Heinz: <3_

He smiles. He and Perry the Platypus don’t text very often -- although, now that he thinks about it, they probably could. Sure, Heinz can’t type as fast as he talks, but it would give Perry the Platypus a chance to communicate with words for once -- so he wasn’t expecting the little text heart. It was a cute surprise, especially because the only one who texts him on a regular basis is Vanessa and she doesn’t tend to use hearts.

“Okay, Norm, have your computer back,” Heinz says, sliding it over to him. “And if Perry the Platypus wants to talk to me again, let me know.”

“Okay, sir!” Norm says.

And with that, it’s time to start the game. Heinz is playing on his smartphone that he doesn’t use very often, so it’s going to be interesting. Norm has mostly explained how the game works -- though he’s a little hesitant to take the word of a robot who’s only been playing it for about an hour -- so he feels fairly confident going into it. All that confidence is thrown out the window when he sees that he’s an imposter. He doesn’t even know what it means, but his screen is dark and dramatic and there are only two of them being shown.

Norm, on the other hand, is beaming. “Sir, you and I are working together!”

At least there’s one plus side to it: he can ask Norm questions without him being suspicious. “So, what do I do?” 

“You should just run around!” Norm tells him. “If anyone asks, you can tell them you don’t know how to do tasks, but look at where you see people standing in front of for long periods of time because that’s where you need to pretend you are doing tasks when someone tells you that’s what you do in the first emergency meeting! And kill as many people as you can without anyone noticing, but remember that you have to wait 45 seconds between each brutal murder, and stay out of the vents!”

Heinz stares at him. “Did you just give me your entire winning strategy?” 

“Yes, yes I did.”

He shakes his head. “Norm, sometimes I think you would have been much better at being evil than I was.”

“Yes, yes I would have!”

Heinz shoots him a glare before doing what he’s told -- running around aimlessly and trying to find someone to kill. 

… It's a good thing OWCA can't read his thoughts because they would not like that sentence (though Commander Carl is a lot more level-headed than Monoscam, so he might be okay).

Heinz walks into that room somewhere on the left with those two glowy red thingies, and, as luck may have it, the red guy is already in there. He kills that guy with ease, and before he can really think about what he's doing, he puts his phone down and looks over at Norm. "I did it! I killed him! He's dead!" He lets out a victory whoop. 

"Good job, sir!" Norm says. "Did you leave the room so no one sees you with the body?"

Heinz frowns. "That… is something I did not think of." 

He picks up his phone and prepares to run away, but, thanks to what he's decently sure is some form of Murphy's Law that haunts him constantly, he's greeted by the light blue little blob dude in the doorway. 

"Norm, help me," he said quickly. "The light blue guy just saw me with the body."

"You mean Perry?" Norm asks. 

Heinz squints, and now that he knows what he's looking at, he really does see Perry's name. "Huh, and here I thought he would stop thwarting me once I quit evil."

Perry walks right through the room like nothing happened. 

"He didn't do anything," Heinz says. "He just… _whoosh_." He gestures dramatically with his hands, almost throwing his phone in the process. 

"That is very weird," Norm says. "Usually he would report the body."

"Well, you know what they say," Heinz says with a shrug. "Never look a gift horse in the mouth." 

And thus the game continues like nothing happened. Heinz continues running his laps and waiting for the 45 seconds to end so he can kill someone else. 

_**Dead body reported** _

"Norm, quick, what's happening?" Heinz asks. 

"Someone found Phineas's or Vanessa's body." Norm explains. "No one can know that we are the imposters, so when I turn the microphone on, act as not-suspicious as possible." He pauses. "When I turn the microphone on, do not say anything unless you have to."

Heinz scowls, but he reluctantly takes the robot's advice anyway. It's not that he thinks Norm's right and that he would give them away; it's that… well… no, Norm's probably right. 

"Where?" Candace asks. 

"Electrical," Isabella says. 

Heinz reaches across the table and taps Norm's arm to get his attention before mouthing, " _What's that?_ " Norm just waves the question off. 

"Did you see anybody?" Candace asks. 

"Nope," she says. 

"I think it was Baljeet!" Buford declares. 

"Buford, you saw me scan in MedBay," Baljeet reminds him. 

"Okay, and?"

"So it wasn't Baljeet and it probably wasn't Buford because he wouldn't _actually_ be that stupid," Candace says. "Anyone else got anything?"

A red dot appears on the icon in the corner, and Heinz taps it. There's a message from the light blue guy, and he has to squint to read it. 

_Perry: Skip?_

Heinz cocks an eyebrow. Shouldn't Perry be _thwarting_ him? He's not entirely sure what he means by "skip," but it's definitely not a thwart, that's for sure. 

"I guess so," Candace says. 

_Candace has voted._

_Perry has voted._

_Norm has voted._

_Ferb has voted._

_Isabella has voted._

_Baljeet has voted._

_Buford has voted._

"Norm, how is everyone doing that?" Heinz asks. 

"I can show you!" Norm says. He pauses a moment to do something on his computer, then makes his way over to the other side of the table, where he explains how voting works. He tries to tap the "skip vote" button himself, only to be reminded that he can't use touch screen devices with his robot fingers. Heinz hits the button himself. 

Everyone skips this round, and no one gets ejected. Heinz isn't entirely sure what that means — the kids did a horrible job explaining this game before he started playing, and he's too old for this type of thing anyway — but he thinks it's a good thing. 

"Hey, Norm, is your microphone off?" he asks. 

"Yes, sir!" Norm says. "I have to turn it off between emergency meetings."

"Cool, then please explain how this game works," Heinz says. "They were voting for the murderer, right?"

"We're called the imposters!" Norm says. 

"Yeah, whatever," Heinz says. "So Perry saw me standing next to the body. He should know I was the — the whatever you just said."

"An imposter, sir!" 

"Yeah, whatever," Heinz says again because he really doesn't care. "So why didn't he vote for me?"

"I do not know, sir." Norm says. "Maybe he did not see the body."

Heinz reviews that moment in his mind. Is it possible? Perry _did_ stop like he saw him, but is it possible that he didn't? Perry's always been observant; it's hard to imagine that he just missed it entirely. But maybe he did. Maybe Heinz isn't as bad at this game as he thinks. 

"Sir, why are you just standing in the cafeteria?" Norm asks, reminding Heinz that he _is_ bad at this game and that he should probably start walking around again. 

No one called him out for just running around last time, so he does it again. He still has absolutely no idea what he’s supposed to pretend to be doing, but he does as Norm told him and makes a mental map of where he notices the kids standing around just in case he has to try to blend it.

His screen begins blinking, and, per usual, he looks up at Norm for help. “What’s with the red?”

“I sabotaged the ship,” Norm explains, not taking his eyes off his computer.

Heinz stares at him blankly. “What ship?”

“We are all on the ship, sir!” 

Heinz raises an eyebrow. “Okay, so why would you sabotage the ship that we’re both on?”

“Because it distracts the crewmates,” he explains. “They have to fix the oxygen before the countdown ends or they will lose.”

“Wouldn’t we also die if there’s no oxygen?” Heinz asks, confused.

“No, sir! We --” 

Heinz looks at him and waits for his answer, but, after a few seconds, he realizes that it’s probably not going to come. Did he short circuit? He can still hear the click of the keys and the scraping of the mouse on the table, so he’s still _functioning_. What happened to the sentence?

It has to be at least 10 seconds later when Norm says, “That is a very good point. Maybe imposters are not human? No one explained that to me”

Heinz finds a group of people huddled in one room, all in the same spot and practically on top of each other. Puzzled, he joins then, expecting to see something interesting. His finger slips, and he accidentally kills someone -- green, it looks like. Well, he’s toast. There’s no way no one is going to realize he just --

_**Dead body reported** _

Ah, yes, there they go.

“Where?” Candace asks.

“O2,” Baljeet replies. “I believe everyone except you and Norm were also here. I do not know who it was.”

“Yeah,” Isabella agrees. “The body showed up as soon as I exited the task, but it wasn’t there before. I was about to report it, but it looks like Baljeet beat me to it.”

“Norm was with me in Admin, so I can vouch for him,” Candace says. “So that leaves Isabella, Baljeet, Perry, and Dr. D.”

“I have no proof, but Isabella seems ‘sus’ to me,” Norm says, and just the way he says “sus” is sus in Heinz’s mind. 

“What did I do?” Isabella asks defensively.

“He makes a salient point,” Baljeet says. “You were very quick to point out that you saw the body as well, but that you did not have time to report it.”

“Uh, yeah, because I saw the body and didn’t have time to report it,” Isabella says. “What’s sus about that?”

“Perry and Dr. D. did not defend themselves that quickly,” Baljeet points out.

“Perry would have typed it and that takes longer, and Dr. D has just been running around in circles the whole time,” Isabella says, which proves that they weren’t oblivious to Heinz having no idea what to do; they just chose to ignore it. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“It is enough proof for me,” Baljeet says.

_Baljeet has voted._

_Norm has voted_.

“Oh, come on!” Isabella whines. 

“Vote for Isabella, sir!” Norm says.

Heinz raises an eyebrow. “Is that not going to sound suspicious?”

“I turned off my microphone, if that’s what you mean,” Norm says. “I have convinced Baljeet that Isabella is the imposter. If you vote for her, that will be three people, and we will presumably need four to frame her as an imposter and vote her out.”

In the background, Candace is declaring that she does not believe it.

Heinz smirks. “Look at you, picking up on how to lie. Learned that from me, didn’t you?”

“No, sir, I learned it from Vanessa!” 

Heinz narrows his eyes, but he’s not entirely sure what to say to that, so he turns his attention back to the chat.

_Candace has voted._

_Perry: I don’t know if this is enough to convince me. It seemed like a very impulsive deduction_.

“They do seem a little eager to throw me under the bus, don’t they?” Isabella remarks.

“Because you were suspicious!” Baljeet says defensively.

_Perry: That they do._

“Do we want to vote one of them out this round and vote the other one out after?” Isabella asks.

“Suddenly, I wish I hadn’t skipped my vote,” Candace says.

“I did not kill anyone!” Baljeet says.

_Perry: Let’s start with Norm. He doesn’t usually participate in these meetings, so it was definitely sus._

_Perry has voted._

_Isabella has voted._

“Well,” Norm says. “This did not work as well as I had planned.”

Heinz scoffs. “You think?”

“Yes, I do think.”

Heinz rolls his eyes. “So, what, do I still vote for Isabella?” 

Norm thinks about that for a moment. “Candace, Isabella, and Perry already think Baljeet is the other imposter. I think you will be okay if you vote for Isabella.”

Heinz starts to point out that Perry might know that Heinz is an imposter, but he decides against it. Instead, he just votes for Isabella.

 _Guest 1 has voted_.

The votes are revealed. Three for Isabella, two for Norm, and one skip. Isabella gets ejected on the spot -- which Heinz did _not_ see coming -- and after 10 seconds, someone starts another emergency meeting.

“What?” Candace asks.

_Perry: Let’s try this again. All in favor of voting out Norm?”_

“Eh, I’m down,” Candace says noncommittally.

“I did not do anything,” Norm says. “I was not even in the room. I think we should vote for Baljeet.”

“What did I do to deserve this?” Baljeet asks. “How was I wrong for suspecting Isabella but you are not wrong for suspecting me? Your hypocrisy does not make sense.”

There’s a brief pause, then Candace says a simple, “Perry?” as if waiting for permission.

_Perry: I mean, we were going to vote them both out anyway. We might as well start with Baljeet so we get Norm’s vote._

_Perry has voted._

_Candace has voted._

_Norm has voted._

“I do not know why I play this with you,” Baljeet huffs.

 _Baljeet has voted_.

“Vote for Baljeet,” Norm says.

Heinz squints, trying to make out which name is his before he votes. That brings an end to that round, and all four votes are lined up under his name except Baljeet’s own, which lies under Norm. Baljeet is ejected, and only four remain. 10 seconds pass, and another emergency meeting begins.

“Alright, now let’s vote out Norm,” Candace says. “All in favor?”

_Perry: Sure._

“I was not the imposter,” Norm says, but it’s obviously in vain and Heinz is sure he knows that.

_Perry has voted._

_Candace has voted._

“Norm. Mic?”

Norm pauses, doing something on his computer before looking up at him. “I turned it off.”

“Should I vote for you?” Heinz asks, confused. 

“I do not know,” Norm admits.

 _Norm has voted_.

“Well, who did you vote for?” Heinz asks.

“I skipped,” Norm says. “Who you vote for is your decision now.”

Heinz thinks about it for a moment. He probably _shouldn’t_ vote for his own teammate, right? But would they notice if he’s the only one who doesn’t? How long does he have to pretend to be a crewmate for? Will the round end once Norm is voted out? Are there enough votes to kick him out if Heinz doesn’t vote for him? How does this work?

Ah, screw it. Who needs to know the rules anyway?

He votes for Norm.

“Ay, sayonara, sucka!” Candace says.

Norm is ejected from the spaceship.

“Well,” Heinz says. “That was interesting.” He’s not sure what to do now.

“Wait a second,” Candace says. “The game is still going? So one of you is still the imposter?”

There’s a brief pause, during which Heinz begins running around like an idiot because what else is he supposed to do, right? He has to wait for the countdown until it ends to kill anyone, after all. Norm’s computer dings as he’s running, but he doesn’t think much of it.

“Sir, Perry the Platypus sent a message on Discord!” Norm announces before reading it aloud. “‘I don’t really know what to do because I didn’t think we would both make it this far, but Heinz is the other imposter. Neither of us have an emergency meeting left to call, so he’s going to win. Should we reconvene somewhere and let him end the round?’”

“Norm, turn your microphone on,” Heinz says.

“Okay, sir!” He does just that. “It’s on, sir!”

“How long have you known?” Candace asks.

“Forget that,” Heinz says. “Why didn’t you _say_ anything?”

There’s a long pause while Perry types.

“Ah, screw it,” Candace says. “Let’s meet in the cafeteria and Dr. D can kill one of us real quick.”

“Uh…” Heinz glances around. “Where’s the cafeteria again?”

“Just keep going up.”

Heinz does just as he’s told, but it doesn’t really matter; he runs into Candace in the hallway before he even makes it to the cafeteria. She stops moving when she sees him, and he catches up to her and kills her. His phone practically yells at him that he and his ghost of a robot won the round, and Heinz drops it on the table.

“Has Perry the Platypus responded?” Heinz asks, already getting up to check.

“He’s still typing, sir,” Norm replies.

It doesn’t seem to matter, though, because Phineas starts talking instead. “I can’t believe it, Perry! You saw my body! You saw my rotting corpse! I was decaying, flies all over my body, and you ran just right by me!”

_Perry is typing…_

“I wasn’t even dead and I want an explanation, too,” Candace agrees. 

“Yeah, I mean, I have nothing against imposters purposely turning on each other,” Buford says, “but crewmates purposely turning on each other…”

“Yes, Buford, we have noticed that you have nothing against imposters turning on each other,” Baljeet mutters.

_Perry: I felt bad because it was only a couple minutes into the game and I didn’t want to have him voted out as soon as he started. I thought he would slip up again soon after, but then he just didn’t and I was trying to pretend I didn’t know and it got very confusing._

“Aw!” Heinz coos. “He’s so cute! Norm, tell him he’s so cute!”

“You can tell him yourself,” Norm says. He turns the microphone on and gestures for him to speak, but Phineas beats him to the punch.

“Where was this energy when _I_ died as soon as I started the round, huh?” Phineas demands, but Heinz can tell he’s joking. Probably. “Or the round before that? Or the round before that? Or the round before that?”

_Perry: There wasn’t really anything I could do about that, now, was there? I don’t exactly carry a defibrillator around, you know._

“Okay, that’s fair,” Phineas admits.

“Well, thanks, Perry the Plat-- Perry the not-platypus!” Heinz says with a grin. “That was a lot of fun! Just, not as fun as my show, so I’m gonna go watch that instead.”

“Bye, Dr. D!” Phineas says. “Thanks for playing a round, Dad!” Vanessa adds.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Heinz says, and he really does mean it. That was a lot more fun than he’d expected, even if he’s not entirely sure what just happened and he didn’t get to talk to Perry or Vanessa much.

He’s already heading for the doorway when Norm says, “Perry the Platypus has a message for you!”

Heinz loops back around to check out what he said. It’s not in the public chat anymore; it’s the one they used earlier, presumably between his own user and Norm’s. He has to squint to read it, especially from this distance. Man, maybe he needs glasses.

_Perry: That was a lot of fun! Thanks for playing a round with us! I’m sure you can come back later if you get bored of the show (and don’t want any new episodes without me or I will find the self destruct button on your TV to stop you myself)_

Heinz chuckles. “I’m stealing your computer for a second.”

Norm doesn’t even try to stop him, so Heinz types out his reply.

_Heinz: I would never watch it without you. I need someone to cry with. See you tomorrow?_

_Perry: Of course! :)_

Heinz smiles. Ah, he loves that little guy so much. 


	9. Chapter 9

Stacy had hoped to join the Flynn-Fletchers’ big group Among Us game in time for the first round, but, obviously, that didn’t happen. Quarantine and the subsequent lack of scheduling in her life has _severely_ messed up her sleep schedule, so she just woke up from her nap (which was basically a normal night’s sleep except for, of course, the “night” part). She was half expecting the game to be full when she tried to join -- it’s not like the boys don’t have enough friends to fill it -- so she was pleasantly surprised to see that this wasn’t the case.

She’s played video games with the Flynn-Fletchers before, but not like this. They usually all sit on the couch or the living room floor and use the Xbox or the Wii, but that hasn’t exactly been an option in recent months. When Candace gave her the chance to play Among Us with her brothers and their friends, and, subsequently, a chance to get away from her sister… Well, how could she say no? 

She scans the names in the Discord. Candace, the boys, Vanessa… Norm? She’s not sure who that is, but she can roll with it. And then…

“Wait, Perry?” Stacy says in disbelief. That can’t be right. Is someone playing as their platypus? Is it Irving? Now that she thinks about it, she could _absolutely_ see that little weirdo pretending to be a platypus. 

“He’s my friend from work,” Vanessa says. “And Norm’s my robot brother, if you’re wondering about him, too.”

“You have a robot brother?” Stacy repeats, dumbfounded. God, maybe Candace was right when she used to freak out over how cool Vanessa is, because that is just… _wow_.

“Yeah, I know, it’s weird,” Vanessa says. 

“I’ve known Phineas and Ferb since they were toddlers,” Stacy says. “Trust me, I’m used to weird.”

“Thank you!” Phineas says, and Stacy can practically _hear_ him smiling.

She gets a private message from Perry just then.

_Perry: You probably already figured out that it’s me, but I figured I would let you know just in case you were still confused. Vanessa invited me to play._

Stacy has to reread that three times. He never once says _who he is_. He just says that he is himself, which, in all honesty, does not help much at all. She makes a mental list of all the Perrys she’s ever met, just to make sure…

Yeah, she’s pretty sure she only knows one Perry.

_Stacy: So you’re the platypus Perry right_

_Perry: Yes._

_Perry: # [ ] >_

_Stacy: Vanessa knows you’re not just a platypus?_

She will admit, it took her a few tries to find the right words for that question. Her first attempt was “not just a dumb pet,” but, fortuntely, she realized before she sent it that it _might_ not come off well. 

_Perry: Her dad was my nemesis for a while. She knew me as an agent before she knew me as a pet._

Stacy cocks an eyebrow. Well, _that_ is a bit of a surprise. At least she knows she’s not the only one aware that they’re playing with a literal platypus, though. It makes it a little less weird. She sends him a friend request just in case she wants to talk to him later, and he accepts it fairly quickly.

_Stacy: How are you even playing this without the Flynn-Fletchers noticing?_

Thank god for auto-changing words, because she does _not_ have the ambition to type out “Flynn-Fletcher” every time she wants to refer to the whole family. All it takes is “FFfam” and it changes itself, just like how “PnF” auto-changes to “Phineas and Ferb.” She’s all about shortcuts.

_Perry: I’m at Vanessa’s. She let me borrow her phone._

_Stacy: Because that’s a normal thing that people do_

_Perry: To be fair, I’m not a person, and I think Vanessa_ could _make the claim that she’s an ocelot (but I’m not sure how the legal system handles things like that)._

Stacy begins to question it, but, the more she thinks about it, the more she decides she doesn’t actually _want_ the answer. She’s talking to a goddamn platypus. Nothing has to make sense about it.

_Stacy: You have the most interesting life_

_Perry: Yes, yes I do._

Stacy turns her attention back to the game -- though they’re just hanging out in the lobby; whether that’s considered “the game” is debatable. There’s some sort of conversation going on, so she tunes in to that.

“If Stacy can change her name,” Buford declares, “then so can I.”

“Buford, what are you --” Phineas cuts himself off as the _Buford has left_ graces the bottom of everyone’s screens. “And he’s gone.”

“Is anyone else scared to see what he changes his name to?” Isabella asks.

“Trust me,” Candace says, “you’re not alone.”

Buford reappears with the name “furry,” and the Discord server erupts into laughter. It gets even better when he changes his hat to the animal ears.

“There we go,” Buford says. “I’m ready to play!”

“Oh, god,” Candace mutters.

“I’m starting the round before anyone else can change their names,” Phineas declares, and the countdown begins.

_**Crewmate** _

It’s pretty much what she’d expected, but she’s a little disappointed nonetheless. She really likes being an imposter, but maybe later. Until then, she has tasks to complete and a spaceship to fix. She sets out to complete her laps the way she usually does -- starting at Upper Engine, working her way down past Electrical and back up to the Cafeteria, then to the right through Weapons and down to Storage. It’s a much-too-complicated S-shape, but it works fairly well, assuming there are no dead bodies to ruin her system.

A dead body ruins her system.

Stacy takes in the sight of the emergency meeting within seconds. She and Candace have played this game together _a lot_ on public servers, so she knows exactly what to look for. Buford called the meeting and Baljeet is the only one dead so far -- understandable; the game’s only been going on for about 90 seconds. That’s about all she needs to pick up herself; she already knows Candace will ask the questions. 

“Where?” Candace asks, right on cue.

“Forget about that,” Phineas says. “Look at me! I’m alive! I lived until the first emergency meeting! Be proud of me!”

Candace snorts. “Congratulations, Phineas. You’re only _mostly_ incompetent.”

“I know!” Phineas says proudly. “Isn’t it great?” He pauses. “Please don’t vote me out again just because I’m alive.”

“It wasn’t him,” Isabella agrees. “He was with me the whole time.”

“Yeah, you’re all good,” Buford assures him. “It was Ferb. I saw him standing right next to the body in O2.”

_Ferb: Not true._

“So, we’re all in agreement that it was Buford, right?” Vanessa asks.

What?

“Yep,” Phineas, Isabella, and Candace say in unison.

“Oh, you’re kidding me!” Buford says, exasperated. “The one time I _actually_ see someone murdered…”

_Ferb: :)_

Stacy eyes the (lowkey very sus) smiley face in the chat. There’s definitely something here she’s not picking up, and if the number of votes showing up on her screen is any indication, she’s the only one not picking it up.

“I didn’t even do anything!” Buford complains. 

“Yeah, why do we think it was Buford?” Stacy asks. “Shouldn’t we be voting for Ferb?”

“Every time Buford’s an imposter, he pins it on someone else,” Candace explains. “So Buford’s an imposter, and Ferb was probably just walking by or something so he’s probably clean.”

“I swear to god, guys, he was _right there_ ,” Buford says. “You’re gonna see! You’re gonna vote me out and you’re gonna think there’s only one imposter left and there _won’t be_ and you’re all gonna lose because you didn’t believe me.”

“Notice how Ferb isn’t saying anything,” Isabella remarks. “Because _he_ knows he’s right and he doesn’t have to defend himself. You know you’re lying so you _do_ have to defend yourself.”

“That’s not how this works!” Buford says. “You are _literally_ that ‘I’ve connected the dots’ ‘You didn’t connect shit’ meme right now!”

_Ferb: You can give it up, Buford. We’ve already voted._

Stacy has _not_ voted, but, looking around, she seems to be the only one holding them up. Buford’s getting ejected however she votes. She feels like she should just vote for him and get this meeting over with, but she has to admit, she’s kind of enjoying it.

“You guys are all horrible people,” Buford tells them. “Especially Ferb, because he _knows_ he killed my nerd and he’s framing me for it.”

_Ferb: That’s the opposite of what’s happening._

_Ferb: You framed me once before. They’re not dumb enough to fall for it again._

“Oh, come on!” Buford says. “That was, like, four rounds ago!”

_Ferb: Okay, and?_

Buford groans. “Fine, vote for me, but don’t think I’m going to let you forget this when you realize I was innocent and Ferb was the imposter.”

In all honesty, Stacy isn’t entirely convinced that Buford killed Baljeet. It’s definitely something he would do, but she’s not sure she buys it. If it hadn’t been for everyone else’s complete confidence that it was him, she definitely would have voted for Ferb, but if they’re so sure…

_Stacy has voted._

The votes are revealed, a picture of every crewmate lined up neatly under Buford’s name. Buford, of course, voted for Ferb, but that doesn’t surprise anyone. He’s ejected from the ship, and the game resumes as normal.

Stacy repeats her S-shaped track, hoping to at least finish _one_ task before another body is reported. She aligns the engine output in Lower Engine, then continues on her way to the dreaded Electrical. Ferb walks past her, presumably coming from Storage, and she braces herself for her inevitable death…

And nothing happens.

Huh. Cool.

She runs into Electrical, where she diverts the power to O2. That one’s easy enough. She turns to leave, ready to get on with her life, but Candace pops out of the vent and stabs her. Stacy throws her head back, exasperated. Oh, _come on!_ From her best friend, too!

Candace hides back in the vent just moments before the ghost of Perry floats by, presumably finishing his tasks, but he stops moving without warning. Confused, Stacy floats through the wall to see what he’s up to, and a message shows up in the chat.

_Perry: Hi, Stacy._

_: Hey_

_Buford: I TOLD YOU I DID NOT KILL ANYONE_

Stacy stares at that message blankly. Was she supposed to figure that one out? Because she really didn’t. All she figured out was that Candace is good at going with the flow, something that is not new to her.

_Perry: I think Ferb was on the other side of the map, so he didn’t kill her._

_: Yeah it was Candace_

_Perry: Oh, that’s who the other imposter is! We were trying to figure that out._

_Buford: I always knew Candace had a taste for blood --_

_Buford: Wait_

_Buford: I totally forgot you can’t use that line on the bottom of the face for the mouth in the among us chat_

_: That’s a great emoticon Buford gif cork for_

_: Frick_

_: That was supposed to be a keysmash_

_: Autocorrect is not my friend_

_Perry: Everyone in this chat is a mess._

_Baljeet: And the line is called an “underscore,” Buford._

_Buford: No_

_Baljeet: It is._

_Buford: No_

_Baljeet: You cannot change the name a character has held since the invention of typewriters, Buford._

_Buford: Watch me_

Stacy just leaves the chat. She’s not sure what’s happening, and she’s not sure she _wants_ to know. Perry has already disappeared, which means she wasn’t the only one getting bored of that conversation. 

She returns to her tasks. Now that walls are no object, she ignores the laws of physics to finish her tasks even quicker. The red dot hovering over the chat haunts her, but she knows it’s just going to be a dumb conversation between Buford and Baljeet, so she does her best to ignore it. She’s about to finish her final task -- uploading data in Admin, which takes an ungodly amount of time -- when another body is reported.

Candace was the one to report this body. The only crewmates remaining are Phineas, Norm, and Vanessa, and, of course, Ferb the imposter is still here as well. 

“Nav,” Candace says. “I didn’t see anyone.”

_(((Buford: Look at her, acting all innocent)))_

“I’m going to be totally honest,” Phineas says. “I never make it this far, so I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Candace snorts. “Nice, Phineas.”

“Should we skip?” Vanessa asks.

“I guess so,” Candace says. 

_(((Perry: Well, this is annoying.)))_

Everyone skips their turn, and the game resumes. 

Stacy finishes her final task, then floats around the map until she finds one of the imposters. She ends up trailing Ferb, who makes a beeline for Storage and stands in front of the wires, where he does absolutely nothing. Candace sets her phone down on her lap to give her hands a rest while she waits. As long as someone walks into the room soon, he should be able to end the game, right? Just one more person…

_**Defeat** _

Apparently Candace got the kill instead. Maybe Stacy should have followed her around instead.

“Wait, what?” Phineas says. “Who was the imposter?”

“Ferb and me,” Candace says. 

“I told you!” Buford yells. “I told you I didn’t kill nobody, and you voted me out anyway!” 

“So you really did see Ferb kill Baljeet?” Isabella asks.

“Yeah, I did,” Buford says. “Thank you very much for listening.”

_Ferb: It’s much easier to frame someone who lies a lot._

“Has anyone else noticed how much harder it is to figure out if Ferb is sus than anyone else?” Vanessa asks. “It’s the whole silence thing, I think.”

“That, and he has a great poker face,” Candace adds.

“Yeah,” Phineas says. “I never would’ve guessed, and he’s sitting right there.”

_Ferb: It’s a gift._


	10. Chapter 10

_**Imposter**_

Perry’s never been the imposter before, so when he sees that his imposter-in-crime is Candace, he suppresses a groan. She’s great at the game -- which is no surprise; she’s always been competitive -- so he’s not worried about his cover being blown (as an imposter, not a secret agent, of course). He’s just… very conscious of the fact that they don’t get along. She may not _realize_ they don’t get along, but _he_ knows it and he’s a little wary of having to team up with her. If he messes up, she’s not going to be happy.

But there’s nothing he can do about it now, so he goes about his life. He heads down to the left, passing through Upper Engine and Reactor and stopping down in Lower Engine. He pretends to do a task -- which one is this? Something with the engine output? -- and waits for someone to walk by…

And someone does. 

Perry ditches his task and walks over to them, ready to kill them and get on with his life, until he realizes that it’s Phineas. He has a great opportunity here; there’s no one around, and he could easily kill and run without getting caught. But Phineas has already died so many times…

Perry just walks past him and over to Electrical. He checks the back, looking for someone to kill, but it looks like Candace already beat him to it. Norm’s body is already back here, and, after a moment of hesitation, Perry reports it. That’s what he would have done if he wasn’t an imposter, right? So if he doesn’t want to be “sus,” he should do it now?

“Where?” Candace asks. He has to hand it to her; she’s very consistent.

_Perry: Electrical._

“Did you see anyone?” Candace asks.

_Perry: No._

“I was in Lower Engine with him,” Phineas says. “He didn’t kill me, so I _think_ that means he’s clear.”

Perry can’t help but smile. Aw, look at him! Perry saved his life, and now he’s helping return the favor. Isn’t that adorable? He’s wrong, but it’s adorable nonetheless.

 _Perry: I can vouch for Phineas, too_.

“Awesome,” Candace says. “In that case, let’s skip.”

Everyone votes, and no one is ejected. The game resumes, this time with one fewer player. 

Perry goes in the same direction as last time, but instead of going all the way down to Lower Engine, he stops at Reactor. He’ll probably get a decent view of the hallway from here, right? He pretends to fix wires as he waits for some poor soul to walk down the hall…

And there one is! Perry runs out of Reactor and kills her, barely even noticing who it is as he does it. It’s not until he hears Vanessa’s “Hey!” that he realizes who he just murdered, and he gives her an apologetic chatter before taking off.

“I’m going to haunt you,” Vanessa tells him. “Just know that wherever you go, there’s a ghost right there, staring at you.”

Perry has to admit, it’s a rather uncomfortable thought. There could be _two_ ghosts watching him right now. There could be more, even -- who knows if Candace has killed anyone since the last emergency meeting? But he has a job to do -- a job that can basically be summed up as “stopping other people from doing their jobs.” 

He heads to Electrical, passing Phineas again in the hallway just outside of it. This time, it’s not Perry’s sympathy that saves him; the kid made it to one emergency meeting, and that’s all the leniency Perry was inclined to offer. This time, he survives only because the kill cooldown lasts for way too long and he doesn’t want to follow him around for another 30 seconds. 

Instead, Perry heads to Electrical, where he fakes… some task…? He still doesn’t know which task in Electrical is which; all he knows is that it makes for a great hunting ground. He stands around, waiting… and waiting… and waiting… until Isabella pops in, and he kills her. He hops into the vent -- he’s never been in a vent before; this is cool! -- and just in time, too; Phineas comes around the barrier within seconds of Perry disappearing, and he reports her body.

Perry scans the list of remaining players. He and Candace are still there, of course, as are half of the crewmates: Phineas, Ferb, Baljeet, and Stacy. They’re doing really well; he’s sort of surprised.

“Where?” Candace asks. 

“Electrical,” Phineas says. 

“Did you see anyone?”

“Just my girlfriend’s dead, lifeless body,” he says, adding a fake sniffle for dramatic effect. “I’ll avenge you, Isabella! I’ll find whatever monster did this to --”

“Skip!” Candace says loudly, cutting him off in a way that sounds like it’s just to shut him up, but Perry’s sure it’s a little more strategic than that. She does the same thing in Monopoly: get the game moving quickly, and people are going to miss things like murders and rent payments. It’s sneaky but it works.

“Wait!” Stacy says quickly. “There are two imposters left and four crewmates. If each imposter kills one person, we lose. Shouldn’t we try to figure out who one of the imposters is while we have the chance?”

“That is a good idea,” Baljeet agrees. “We are likely to lose if we do not try to eject an imposter now.”

“Who are we thinking?” Phineas asks. “Perry and I already cleared each other, so it’s neither of us.”

Vanessa snorts. “If only he knew.”

Perry just chatters at her.

“It was not me,” Baljeet says. “I was in the Lower Reactor.”

“Where were you, Candace?” Phineas asks.

“I was in O2.”

_Ferb: No, you weren’t._

Perry raises an eyebrow. It was _his_ murder that got reported. He was hoping they would turn on someone else, but he definitely wasn’t expecting his partner to get caught in a lie. At least no one asked where _he_ was, though. He considers that a win. Now he just has to hope Candace can get out of this one.

“Ferb’s right,” Stacy says. “I was in O2 with him. Candace wasn’t there.”

“I was!” Candace insists. “ _You guys_ weren’t there.”

“It’s two against one, Candace,” Phineas says. “Sorry, sis.”

Candace scoffs. “No, you know what’s happening?”

“You are being accused of being the imposter,” Baljeet answers.

Candace ignores him. “Ferb was scared we’d figure out that it was him, so he accused me. Stacy’s the other imposter, so she had to jump in and protect him.”

“That is _so_ not true!” Stacy practically yells.

“It is too true!” Candace retorts. 

_Ferb: This game is going to tear friendships apart._

“Yeah, when my friends _lie_ about me!” Stacy says.

_Perry: Candace has a point._

He hopes it’s not as obvious as he feels it is that he’s doing this to protect _his_ partner. He’s doing exactly what Candace just accused Stacy of doing; he’s just doing it more subtly (he hopes). Ferb and Stacy definitely know that Candace is the imposter now; he just has to hope they don’t know that he is, too, and that Phineas and Baljeet take his side.

“Yeah, I mean, I guess it makes sense,” Phineas says hesitantly. “But I don’t…” He sighs. “I’m gonna sit this one out.”

 _Phineas has voted_.

“I’m voting for Ferb,” Candace says. “And I’m voting for Stacy next.”

 _Candace has voted_.

Perry follows her lead, and the two accused imposters throw their votes in, too, presumably against Candace. That just leaves one more, the deciding vote.

“What’s it gonna be, Baljeet?” Phineas asks. “It all comes down to you.”

“I do not know if there is enough evidence either way,” Baljeet admits. “However, I do think we need to _try_ to vote the imposter out, so I will vote…” He thinks about it for a moment. “I will vote for Candace.”

 _Baljeet has voted_.

“Oh, come on!” Candace whines.

Perry tries not to be discouraged. So Candace is gone. That’s okay; he’s a capable platypus. He can handle this without her. There are only four crewmates left; he only has to kill three. That’s… not going to be easy, but he’ll figure something out. He’s a secret agent, for crying out loud. What type of secret agent can’t neutralize three threats?

He goes to the left yet again, and he wonders belatedly if that’s going to be suspicious. Phineas joins him in Reactor with 30 seconds left of the cooldown, and Perry scowls. He gives it a few seconds, then walks out, leaving Phineas to do whatever task he’s doing. Perry keeps going down, and he passes by Baljeet on the way. Again, what could have been a perfect kill, disrupted by the eternally ticking cooldown. He takes a detour, pausing to pretend to prime the shields while he kills more time.

This time, the timing works out in his favor. Just seconds before the cooldown ends, Stacy walks by. Perry leaves the shield priming behind and runs up to her, killing her with ease before making a run for it. He runs past Electrical, not giving the room a second thought, and heads up through Lower Engine. He’s not entirely sure where he’s going, but it doesn’t really matter; he just needs the kill cooldown to end. 

But then he notices Ferb in Security, and he realizes that this could be an interesting idea --

_**Dead body reported** _

An interesting idea for later, apparently.

Phineas is the one to report the body, and for a brief moment, Perry debates pointing that out. This makes it the second body he’s reported; that would count as “sus,” right? But Phineas was also his alibi at the beginning of the round and he doesn’t want to blow a whole in everything by accusing him of anything, so he stays silent.

“Candace must have been the imposter,” Baljeet remarks. “There are only four of us left.”

“Apparently,” Phineas agrees. 

_Ferb: Where was the body?_

“Outside Shields,” Phineas says. 

_Ferb: Did you see anyone?_

“No.”

_Ferb: I was in Security._

Perry decides to take the opposite approach of his first idea -- _defending_ his enemies instead of accusing them.

 _Perry: It’s true. I had just finished my tasks and I was going there next. Ferb isn’t the imposter_.

“If that is true, then I believe it must be Phineas,” Baljeet says. 

“I didn’t even do anything!” Phineas whines. “I’m just out here living my best life --”

“The fact that you are living at all is suspicious,” Baljeet says. “You always die far sooner than this.”

Phineas scoffs. “Wow, hit me while I’m down, huh?” 

_Ferb: And you did report two bodies_.

Huh. Apparently Perry didn’t have to make that connection himself.

“Because I keep finding them?” Phineas says. “I don’t know how that’s my fault.”

“I am going to vote for Phineas,” Baljeet says. 

_Baljeet has voted._

_Ferb: Me too._

_Ferb has voted_.

“Come on, Perry, you’re not gonna do this to me, are you?” Phineas asks.

Perry hesitates. Well, if everyone else is, maybe… It would make his life easier with one less person to kill…

“Hey, speaking of Perry,” Candace says, and the fact that her voice is so soft makes Perry think they’re not supposed to hear it on Discord. Phineas’s microphone must be accidentally picking it up. “Where _is_ Perry? Our Perry, I mean?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s usually home by now, isn’t he?” Phineas remarks, then seems to remember he’s in a game. “Perry, come on, don’t do this to me. Not after I stuck up for you earlier.”

Perry frowns. He hates to do it, but at this point, there’s one obvious choice.

_Perry: Sorry, Phineas, but if everyone else is so sure, I guess I have to go with it._

_Perry has voted_.

“Alright, be right back,” Phineas says. “Gonna go cry in the shower for a few hours.”

 _Phineas has voted_.

Phineas is ejected, and the game resumes.

Phineas pops back in the voice chat just to say, “See? I told you it wasn’t me!”

Perry walks away, trying to kill time before his cooldown ends. It’s gone down 10 seconds when...

_**Emergency meeting!** _

This one was at Ferb’s hand, and nothing has changed in the last few seconds (except, of course, that no one believes Phineas was an imposter anymore), so Perry’s a little wary. It’s down to the three of them -- Perry, Ferb, and Baljeet -- and he’s not sure what to expect.

“What is it?” Baljeet asks.

_Ferb: There are only three of us left. The imposter would win if we didn’t try to vote him out._

“That is a good point,” Baljeet says. “I do not know who I am more suspicious of. Neither of you have done much.”

Perry decides to throw out an excuse to hopefully get the attention off of himself.

_Perry: You were very quick to blame Phineas, Baljeet._

“The evidence pointed to him!” Baljeet says. 

_Perry: And just the fact that Ferb called this meeting makes me believe it wasn’t him._

_Perry has voted_.

“Then I will vote for you back,” Baljeet says.

 _Baljeet has voted_.

_Ferb: That was not a very compelling argument, Baljeet._

_Ferb has voted._

_Baljeet has been ejected._

_**Winners** _

Perry grins. He was starting to get nervous there. He was so sure he would be ejected for _something_. They weren’t even looking for evidence; it was entirely based on suspicion, and there was more than enough reason to suspect him. He’s feeling rather proud of himself for making it out alive, even with all the yelling coming through his -- err, Vanessa’s -- earbuds.

“Hey, Perry,” Vanessa says, and he looks up at her. “Do you need to get home? It sounds like they were looking for you.”

Perry frowns. He’s having a lot of fun playing the game, but he probably should get home before the boys get worried. If _Candace_ was the one to point it out… well, clearly he’s been gone too long. 

Perry nods, then begins typing his goodbye message in the Discord. He listens to the kids’ bickering as he does, a fond smile on his lips. These kids are so funny; he loves them and their intense devotion to their characters’ lives. He hopes he gets to watch at least another round once he gets home.

_Perry: I have to go, but I’ve had a lot of fun playing with you guys! Thank you for being patient with me when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing :)_

The smile auto-changes to an emoji, and Perry frowns. The emoji looks so much dumber than the text face. Who designed this thing? If he ever plays this again, he’s googling this first because he does _not_ want to deal with these auto-smiles. They’re a disgrace to the good name of emoticons.

“Bye, Perry!” Phineas says. “We’ll miss you!”

“You should play with us again next time,” Isabella says. “There’s going to be a next time, right?”

“Of course there’s going to be a next time,” Phineas says. “There has to be!”

_Perry: I would absolutely love to play with you again!_

He wasn’t sure he expected to hear about another game, and he’s glad to know that not only is it there a good chance that it will happen, but that he’s already invited when it does. He can’t wait.

“Hey, Perry, before you go,” Candace says, and Perry braces himself for the worst. All she says is, “You picked this up really quick. You did good; it was an honor being your imposter buddy.”

Perry can’t help but smile. He’d never dreamed of teaming up with Candace before on _anything_ \-- watching cheesy romance movies excluded, of course; that’s not quite a _team_ activity just because Perry barges in and refuses to leave -- and he didn’t expect it to go well. The fact that it did… well, it means a lot to him. This whole experience did. He can’t wait to play it again soon.

But first, he needs to go home and see his family.


	11. Chapter 11

Jeremy is working on his cosplay for a convention that he’s _totally_ not embarrassed about going to in a few weeks when he gets a text from Candace. He’s been really getting into the groove with this Megamind outfit, but for Candace, he can put it down. He’s glad he does, too, because it seems to be a time-sensitive question.

_Candace: If you’re home now, we’re still playing Among Us and there’s room for one more :)))_

Jeremy had, admittedly, lied about what he was doing tonight when Candace asked him the first time. It’s not that she doesn’t _know_ that he cosplays; he admitted it a few years back because they’d both matured a lot since high school and it was starting to feel like a pointless secret. He just knows she would ask for pictures if she knew this is what he was working on, and he’d rather _not_ send her a Megamind photoshoot. As far as she knows, he was dragged to one of his mom’s charity benefits to save the animals.

Jeremy glances at his Megamind outfit, lying half-finished on his bed. He _could_ finish it…

But he’d rather play Among Us.

_Jeremy: I’d love to join!_

Candace sends him an invitation to the Discord. He carefully moves his Megamind outfit to his chair, draping it over the back and praying it won’t fall apart. He sits down on his bed and gets everything set up. As soon as he joins the Discord, he’s greeted with a lot of “Hi!”s in the chat, and he’s again verbally once he joins the voice chat. 

“Hey, guys!”Jeremy says. “Thanks for letting me play!”

“Thanks for joining us!” Phineas says. “The code’s probably long gone in the chat, so hang on, I’ll send it to you.”

Jeremy waits for him to send in, then enters it in the game. He appears in the lobby as brown, which is… uncomfortable. He’s usually green, but it looks like that’s already been taken by someone named Norm. Who the heck is Norm? He’d assumed he would know everyone that was playing with them, but apparently not.

“I’m having an identity crisis,” Jeremy jokes, heading over to the laptop to change his color. Most of them have already been taken, so there aren’t many options left.

“An identity crisis?” Vanessa -- he thinks that’s Vanessa? -- repeats. “Like a diet?”

Jeremy cocks an eyebrow.

“Identity crisis light?” she asks. 

Jeremy chuckles. “Yeah, over what color I want to be. Someone already has my usual one.” He looks over the few remaining options, then settles on yellow. It’s weird to switch it up, but it works. 

“Everyone ready?” Phineas asks.

There’s a chorus of “Yes!”s and a “No” from Buford. Phineas starts the game anyway.

_**Crewmate** _

Jeremy breathes a sigh of relief. He’s only played this game a few times -- usually because the game Candace and Stacy are playing needs another player -- but he’s long since decided that he would rather be a crewmate than an imposter. A quick look at the map says he has a task in the top right corner of the cafeteria, so he does that one first. No one ever dies in the cafeteria at the beginning of a round.

… god, he hopes he didn’t jinx that.

Fortunately he downloads the data without dying, and it’s on to his next task. He opens up his map. There’s one in O2. That looks closest. He closes his map and goes there. Hopefully it’s going to be the trash one because that only takes a few seconds; instead, he’s forced to get rid of the leaves, and he _hates_ that one. The leaves never listen to him. Still, one by one, he gets them out of the filter, and just as he’s about to finish his last leaf --

_**Dead body reported** _

Oh, come on! He was so close to finishing his task. He hopes this is one that he can pick up where he left off. He never remembers which ones he has to start over and which ones he doesn’t, but if he has to throw all these leaves out again, he’s going to scream.

It looks like Vanessa reported the body, which seems to have belonged to Phineas.

As always, Candace takes charge, asking an immediate, “Where?” before Jeremy even has time to turn on his microphone.

“MedBay,” she says. “Didn’t see anyone.”

“Skip?” Candace asks.

Everyone agrees -- there’s not really a reason not to; only two people have died -- and they’re back in the game.

Jeremy goes back to O2, and he’s very excited to see that he doesn’t have to get rid of _every single leaf_ again. He finishes that task, and then he’s off to Navigation. Candace, Stacy, and Norm are already in there, and he’s not sure he’s ever seen the room this crowded. He goes about his business, getting ready to chart the course…

And Buford vents right in front of them.

Jeremy just stares at his phone. Did he really just see that? Buford wouldn’t be that reckless, would he? Sure, he’s… _him_ , but he wouldn’t --

Buford hops back out of the vent.

Jeremy just watches him for a few more moments. He doesn’t even care about his task anymore. He wants to figure out what Buford’s up to.

Norm leaves the room, but Candace is still doing her task. As long as Candace is here with him, he’s not too worried about standing around a known imposter. Buford wouldn’t kill him with a witness. Although he did just go _back_ into the vent with two witnesses, so he’s not sure whether he should believe that.

_**Emergency meeting** _

So _that’s_ where Norm went -- to call an emergency meeting. Jeremy would have done it instead, but he was too distracted watching Buford.

“What’s up, Norm?” Vanessa asks.

“Buford was going in and out of the vent in Navigation,” Norm says. “He did not seem concerned that there were three other people there.”

Jeremy raises an eyebrow. His voice sounds _weird_ ; it’s almost robotic, but in a very human way. Would it be weird to ask Candace about him after the game ends? 

“He was,” Candace agrees. “And I’m sure Jeremy can vouch for us.”

“Uh, yeah, that sure did happen,” Jeremy says uncertainly. He’s not sure who’s confusing him more: Norm and his way of speech, or Buford and his way of impostering.

“Then I guess we have our imposter?” Vanessa says. “Wait, hold up,” Buford says. “I can prove I’m innocent.”

“How are you going to do that?” Candace asks. “We _saw you_ go in the vent.”

“It’s true, we did!” Norm says cheerfully. He sounds like an all-around happy person, and Jeremy decides then and there that he likes this Norm guy.

“No, trust me, I can prove it,” Buford says. 

“Is anyone else scared to see what he’s doing?” Isabella asks. 

“Yes, I am, too,” Baljeet agrees. 

But, despite the general consensus being that this is a valid reason to be scared -- and, arguably more important, that he is undoubtedly the imposter -- no one votes for him while they wait. Jeremy thinks about it, but if no one else is going to, he doesn’t want to be the first. 

“Okay, I’m streaming it,” Buford says. “Look.”

Jeremy checks the streaming channel, and, sure enough, Buford has gone live. He opens up Buford’s stream, and he’s greeted with a wonderful video of a PowerPoint titled “reasons why I’m not the imposter,” with “ _please don’t vote me out_ ” written below that. They’re all very dumb reasons -- “I always do my tasks!” “You guys saw me do the admin card number thingy!” “I did not kill anybody because I can’t! I’m a crewmate!” “If you vote me out, you lose!” -- and by the end, everyone is dying laughing.

Candace is the first to regain her composure. “You know, Buford, that was a _very_ convincing presentation, _but…_ ”

“What do you mean, ‘but’?” Buford asks. “I’m not the imposter! Didn’t you see my presentation?”

In the end, everyone still votes him out -- himself included -- but it made for a good laugh. Now the question is, who’s the second imposter?

Jeremy goes back to Navigation to chart the course that he should have already charted. Candace meets up with him there, presumably finishing the task that Norm interrupted. With the course charted, he goes on his way, and he hopes she makes note of the fact that he didn’t kill her. He’s almost positive that this interaction -- or lack of interaction, more accurately -- proves that she isn’t the imposter, and he hopes she feels the same way. It would be nice to clear each other if given the chance.

He goes on his way, all the way down through Shields and Storage to complete his two tasks in Admin. His plans change when he finds Lime’s body lying on the ground just between Shields and Admin and a figure disappearing into Admin. Jeremy leaves the body behind and runs after them, and while he doesn’t get a good look at who it is, he does see them slip into the vent. Jeremy returns to the body to report it.

_**Dead body reported** _

It appears that Lime was Ferb, which means he’s joined his brother in the great beyond. Buford is gone, too, of course, but he was an imposter so he doesn’t count for much.

“Where?” Candace asks, and Jeremy has to admit, the way she automatically stops trying to be cute once they’re playing the game is _adorable_. 

“Between Storage and Admin,” Jeremy says. “Someone vented in Admin, but I didn’t see who.”

“I don’t know, Jeremy,” Stacy says, and he can’t tell if she’s just teasing him or not. “That sounds pretty sus to me.”

“No, I think he’s clear,” Candace says. “Where was everyone? I was in Comms.”

Everyone shouts out their alibi, and it means absolutely nothing to Jeremy because he doesn’t have the vent system memorized. He hopes Candace and Stacy are keeping track of this, because they’ll be far more useful than he is in figuring this out.

“Was that everyone?” Candace asks.

“I think so,” Stacy says. “So Baljeet and Vaness--”

“What about you?” Candace asks. “I don’t think you told us.”

“Oh, I was in Lower Engine,” Stacy says. “Anyways, Baljeet and Vanessa --”

“I was in Lower Engine,” Isabella says. “You weren’t there.”

“Yes, I was,” Stacy says. “Are you sure you weren’t in Upper Engine? Because no one else was --”

“I know where I was, Stacy,” Isabella says. “And I know you weren’t there.”

“Ooh, cat fight!” Buford says excitedly.

“Buford, go be dead,” Isabella says.

Buford just sends a skull emoji in the Discord.

“Isabella _did_ say she was in Lower Engine first,” Candace says.

“If you were really there, you would have pointed it out when she said she was,” Jeremey agrees, and even though Candace basically made that point herself, he still feels rather accomplished for being the one to say it.

“Oh, come on,” Stacy mutters. “Where’s the ‘I’m not the imposter’ presentation when you need it?”

Everyone votes for Stacy except the girl herself, who just skips the round. She’s ejected, and Jeremy finds himself holding his breath as he waits to see if they were right. What if…

_**Winners** _

Oh, okay, maybe it _was_ that easy. 

“Congratulations, Jeremy!” Phineas says. “We’ve officially survived the same number of games today!”

Jeremy raises an eyebrow. Well, that’s… sad…


	12. Chapter 12

Perry parks his hover car in his lair. At this point, that’s all the room is used for -- so many evil scientists are also enjoying their coronacation that Perry rarely has any cases, and his lair is more a parking garage than anything else. He could take one of the chutes in his lair directly into the house, but that might raise some questions because he _definitely_ hasn’t been home for the last few hours. Instead, he pops out in the yard and waddles over to the back door. 

He can see both boys from where he stands, but they’re both too distracted by their game to notice. He waits a few seconds, hoping someone will look up, but, as he predicted, they don’t. Perry taps his beak against the door a couple times, and that finally gets Phineas’s attention, and he can vaguely hear Phineas say something. He can’t make out the words, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it was something along the lines of “Oh, there you are, Perry.”

Perry waits for what he assumes is about a minute -- long enough that he begins to think they’re not going to let him in until the round is over -- but finally, Phineas gets up. He leaves his laptop where it is and opens the door for Perry, who walks between his legs to get inside.

“Hey, buddy,” Phineas says. “We were wondering where you went.”

Perry follows Phineas to his laptop, and he curls up next to him so he can watch the game. Just because he’s not playing anymore doesn’t mean he’s not invested. He’s a little surprised to see that they’re back to having 10 people in the game, but he can’t complain that they replaced him with Jeremy. He’s always liked Jeremy, and he’s decently sure the feeling is mutual.

_**Dead body reported** _

Phineas nudges his platypus. “That’s me. I’m the dead body.”

Ignoring him, Candace asks the usual, “Where?”

“Electrical,” Baljeet says.

Perry didn’t expect to hear the emergency meeting, but apparently they kids decided that Ferb should have his speaker on with Candace’s -- and presumably also Phineas’s -- voice muted so no one has to hear double.

Vanessa snorts. “Take a shot every time Phineas dies.”

Phineas turns his microphone on just long enough to say, “Do you have a death wish?”

Perry does his best to pay attention to the emergency meeting, but he didn’t see the round and he didn’t play it so it’s all a bunch of mumbo jumbo. He walks in a few circles before lying back down again, his head resting against the side of Phineas’s leg. He doesn’t have to watch the round. He’s more than content just half-listening until he falls asleep.

Perry only knows when the game starts because everyone goes silent. It doesn’t take him long to realize that the silence is going to lull him to sleep, and he doesn’t mind. In fact, he’s so tired that he barely even processes Phineas’s quiet, “What the heck is he doing?” until the next meeting starts a few seconds later.

“So, Buford was standing over the body in Electrical,” Jeremy says. “I walked in and he was just standing there.”

“Yeah,” Buford says.

“So… you’re the imposter?” Jeremy asks.

“Maybe.”

“Um…”

“I guess we’re all voting for Buford?” Vanessa asks.

“I guess so,” Candace agrees.

Everyone goes quiet, and Perry waits for the next emergency meeting. Perry finds himself wondering in spite of himself what Buford’s game plan is, but if he wants to expose himself as an imposter, who is Perry to question it? 

They finish the rest of the game, and Perry stops paying attention. It’s not until the game ends and everyone starts talking over themselves that Perry zones back in, mostly because he can’t ignore it at this point.

“Buford wasn’t even the imposter?” Candace asks.

“Nope,” Buford says proudly.

“Then what were you doing in there?” Jeremy asks.

“Maybe someone killed Baljeet while Buford was doing a task?” Vanessa asks.

“No,” Baljeet says, “Buford was not there when I died.”

“Yeah, seriously, Buford, what was that?” Phineas asks. 

“I was mourning my nerd,” Buford says simply.

“You were _what?_ ” a chorus of voices say in unison.

“I was mourning my nerd,” Buford repeats. “No one gets to kill my nerd but me.”

“Um…” Baljeet says awkwardly. “Thank you?”

“Any time,” Buford says. “Any time.”


	13. Chapter 13

They play quite a few more rounds, but eventually they all agree that it’s time to go to bed. Ferb can’t help but feel a little disappointed, though he knows it’s for the best. It’s getting late, and while the Flynn-Fletchers may be good at quarantining, some people have places to go tomorrow and sleep is a fairly important thing. 

… well, it is _for now_ , but Ferb might know what they’re going to do tomorrow.

“That was a lot of fun,” Norm says. “I would love to play again one day!” “Me too,” Jeremy says. “I know I came in late, but I had a lot of fun, too.”

“We definitely have to play again,” Candace agrees. “We’ll have to figure out how to get everyone in because I think Perry would want to play, too --”

Perry gives a quiet, half-asleep chatter from his spot on the couch, and Ferb would be shocked if Phineas’s microphone doesn’t pick it up for everyone to hear.

“Not you, meat brick,” Candace says. “A different Perry.”

“I’m sure we can figure something out,” Phineas says. “So, what do you say? Next Friday?”

“Next Friday it is,” Isabella agrees.

“I am very excited!” Norm says.

“I think we all are,” Vanessa says. “But, for real, “i’m off to bed. ‘Night, guys.”

Everyone says their goodbyes, and the game comes to a close. Ferb stands up and stretches, his muscles stiff from sitting on his phone for the last few hours. Phineas puts his laptop away and stands up, too, which is all it takes to really wake Perry up. The platypus gives a small stretch before standing up and hopping off the couch, making his way over to Ferb.

“I think Perry’s ready for bed, too,” Phineas remarks. 

“This has to be the first time I’ve ever agreed with him on anything,” Candace mutters. “‘Night, boys.”

“‘Night, Candace,” Phineas says. 

Ferb just waves.

Candace takes her phone and disappears up the stairs, leaving Phineas, Ferb, and Perry alone in the living room. Ferb crouches down and gives Perry some brief head scritches, and the platypus lets out a content sigh.

“Time to head to bed?” Phineas asks.

Ferb gives a thumbs up and stands back up. They head to their room, and Perry curls up on Ferb’s bed before he even has time to get his pajamas. Ferb smiles, just a little bit. The only thing that would have made tonight better was if Perry was with them the whole time. 

What Ferb doesn’t realize is that he was, and it was an experience he wouldn’t trade for the world.


End file.
